Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

you knew what you were getting into when you hired on. you knew everything was based on seniority. now..you're bitter? grow up, everyone who has worked for the railroad has waiting their turn for better jobs, and rest days. yes times are sh–ty right now, but don't be a fool to blame your fellow co-worker, it's not their fault that these lay offs are happening

ILP is a joke any work you do in eight hours is added to the eight hours you are already given when you clock in so there will always be more hours going against the shop then work actually being done. So in reality people are doing 8 hours of work not whatever bs hours they are credited as “working” they sign off at the end of their shift. And as far as people getting called back that’s highly unlikely they’ll just let the next s—er in charge mass hire to refill the ranks that were depleted from their firestorm to get to G55.

That’s why so many left the airlines to come to the railroads. There is historically low job security in the airlines. Many that went to the railroad said they were tired of getting laid off.

Yep there has never been mass layoffs in the airline industries

The problems with most of the old heads are that they want to follow in the “I paid my dues over the last XX years now I’m going to sit around while the young guys work” way it’s been. But UP is tracking productivity diligently. There are now many more manhours than ILP and/or billable hours. Why employ 80hrs worth of manpower when they are only doing 30hrs worth of work daily? Sure there are slow days here and there but now weeks and months.

Here is an idea, for all the "Young ones" as you call yourselves with little seniority. Go get your A&P license and leave this sinking ship. If you have any mechanical aptitude,working on aircraft should be rewarding plus it pays a whole lot more and the benefits are a whole lot better. Get out while you're still young. Educate yourself go back to school get FAA certified.The sky is the limit with that license. Good luck

I dont think anyone is blaming "old heads" for anything. But I know some guys that didnt get a cdl or welder qualified and now a lower seniority person has a job they want but aren't qualified for. And yeah nobody walked in here with 25 years but when people say yeah I have had at least one weekend day off since I got carded and your eight years in and the lowest weekend job is still five years away it s—s to listen to them. From 87 to 95 people gained seniority and fast. After all this is done it will be the same way for the people that want to stay.

Y'all do really that all of us Old Heads were young once too? We didn't start out with 25+ yrs, days/weekend off and getting "choose" where we wanted to work. No, we were young with young families, worked second and third shift with odd days off, missed a lot of baby time, firsts steps, and little league games, not to mention time with our then young wife's. We paid our dues so that guys like y'all could have the opportunity to hire on and hopefully be where we are one day. Us Old Heads didn't do this to ya'll, this greedy corporation did. Oh and one other thing, those jobs that y'all left behind that none of us Old Heads chose due to seniority, we're doing them now. And we're doing them just fine. Yes we wish y'all was there to do them because we know you have young families that need the benefits and pay. But, like the Railroad before us, and now you, life goes on with our without you, or us.

Y'all hang in there, keep your heads up and stop blaming us Old Heads. Because when and if they call y'all back, we will welcome you back with open arms again.

If we wanted to see real change in the union, the leadership would be paid what we are instead of six figures.

I'm pro-union and I mean all unions not just the ones that cover the railroads. In my view, the unions at UP and other class ones are just holding on for relevance. Yes, they are doing some positive things such as getting claims paid. So, they do some positive things and there are some good local guys involved in union leadership. You are definitely better off having a union than not having a union. If you want to see how it works without a union, then try being a manager.

However, I have to say I don't know why the unions are so scared to strike. Yes, we know about the last time it happened they were brought back to work the same day. Ok so what? So strike and get some media attention and get brought back the same day. Then a few months later do it again. I don't care if the strike only lasts five minutes get your message out to the media about the unsafe practices and whatever other complaints and people will pay attention. Seriously, whats the worst that can happen? People are losing their jobs left and right. Yards are being shut down. There is talk about unsafe work practices due to less employees doing the work. There have been a high number of injuries and worse. What exactly would it take for the railroad unions to strike?

As it is now, the upper union leadership appears to just be enjoying their cushy jobs and riding it out until retirement.

I understand the unions trying to get layed off people back working but shouldn't they also be getting all the people left trained on everything. If someone gets sent to work on a ptc issue and hasn't had the opportunity to be trained on the systems they need to refuse cause they are not qualified. Send me to class and then I can take care of it. That's one of the things that pushed me off with the 4400 program they got now. We will pay you after you passed the class in your time. The unions should not allow this. It's the carriers responsibility to train us on their equipment it always has been. How long will it be before this is mandatory. And then after that you wont be paid for it in your free time. Its contract time. We need a required time for all craftspersons to be trained. If it was 40 hours a year you would put a lot of people back to work right now. And chances are it would all be a tax write off for training

Not all the young are gone there are some still left. They are just tired of the bs and being shifted from whatever c-ap days off on day shift to c-ap days off third and second shift that they started on 8-12 years ago. Those that were hard and decent workers have now become disgruntled and fed up watching those that are “qualified” but can barely do the job as effectively if at all and that should have been fired years ago but are “protected” displacing them from those jobs and realizing that getting back to those c-ap days off on day shift is 5-10 years away again and what weekend jobs that are left will still be out of reach to them for another 5 years on top of that if those don’t disappear as well. So they leave because they are either furloughed or find jobs that are better suited for the families they are starting or have started since breaking out 8-12 years ago. There isn’t a complete shortage of young workers the company just never bothered to take into account that they should have promoted from within like they did years ago with the apprentice programs instead of totally hiring off the street. Everything that’s happened since the last contract was stuffed down the agreement employees throats has led to the exodus of those young workers left that are now leaving that is/are left behind not furloughed to see the shell this company is becoming. And watching those senior workers (who are all just as qualified as those younger employees just don’t want to work as hard as they did) also leave is just as comical because they’ve been stripped of their weekend or cush jobs to the now (which were always hard) jobs with bs days off and horrible work loads due to there not being enough people to do the jobs.

Exactly. I’ve known electricians that had nearly 30 years of service that could only change traction motor brushes. Machinists that couldn’t change a power assembly. Let alone troubleshoot air. And they didn’t want to. I can’t tell you how often I heard them say that the more you know the more they’ll expect from your and they’re proud of themselves for being so lazy. I’ve known excellent employees with many years of service and were eager to learn and did learn the new equipment and did. Those that didn’t was because of laziness or they just didn’t care. They had the opportunity. They made conscious decisions not to.

Didnt they offer two years vacation a year ago if you would retire at the end of the year. I dont know of anyone that took it. Everyone said they will offer a buyout if they start laying off. Now the old heads lost that cush job where they didnt do anything and would probably take that offer now. I heard people say all the time I'm never going to have to work on that or refuse to go to a scheduled class. I dont know of any industry where they dont expect there workers to keep up with the technology that is being introduced into the company and people here sit and botch about it.

What a funny idea. In my short 8 years, the new electricians were forced into PTC jobs and the old hands took on the older units to get them running and out of the shop. Training was usually a joke if you got sent at all. Now I am willing to bet there are few PTC installers left and the old hand are still protected by their contract so they will stay around until they retire. It would make sense to train all employees to the same knowledge level, but the few smart foremen gave the work to the person who could do it or at least would sign it off. Still can’t spell st-UP-id without UP.

So the older employees that are unable to perform the scope of work in their contract should be disqualified from the craft. They should have been interested enough in their craft to learn the newer equipment. They didn’t. So now they can be legally disqualified for not being able to perform the basic scope and responsibility of their job and the newer folks brought back.

Yea, these people are clueless I cant wait for the bottom to fall out. Stock market plummet and all they work to steal from us employees is wiped out. I don't even know how they look at themselves. This is like watching the movie Big Short.

So we've got one RH guy on duty per shift now.... so they'll be swapping out brake shoes on a switcher loco and a mainline train will come in for crew change and need a headlight before it can depart....

Mgmt is vapor locking because they need the train issue handled, but pulling the RH off the switcher will delay the switch crew...

LOL....I mean did they really not foresee such a scenario occurring? Sh– like that happens every day and they just don't get it.

Sounds like he's saying it would be in the companies best interest to do so....but wise decisions and current UP management strategy just don't go together...

So you think they should be offering some sort of buyout for the older workers close to retirement