Thread regarding Union Pacific Corp. layoffs

No I disagree. We didn't do it to ourselves at all. There are always a few bad apples in every work group and every organization. Union folks put forth the labor efforts to the best of their ability...generally. Now, when local management crushes morale and treats people badly...then pride and production DOES go out the window. This is just human nature and has nothing to do with being a union employee or non-union employee. Management is a disgrace except for a few pockets of excellence here or there. Upper management cares nothing about the carnage happening below them. They care about the mighty dollar and the power plays that feed their big egos. They need to continually inflate that ego or life falls flat for them. They are ugly, evil creatures.

The company agreed to pay me an hourly wage, benefits and vacation in return I agreed to give them 40 hrs per week of my life of good honest work. The minimum for the minimum. Why would you go "above and beyond" that? This company could careless whether you live or die. I've been with them for 23 years and this my friends is the newest flavor of the month. Every 5 years or so this company has to pretend to shareholders that they are doing something different. Within the next decade we will have "ROBOTIC RAILROADING" and that'll be that!!! Good luck....

I've worked alongside and see it everyday. As a craft we either dont do all of our work as it should be or we pick and chose what we want to do. Foreman's, FG, management and the Director see this each day. Thir isn't any Pride in what we do. We talk about bucking the system when we helped to create this problem. Most want to only do the bare minimum and go home. Broken down to its simplest form. We as the craft have created this monster by not holding each other accountable for our work. We have allowed this to happen over many years and now people are becoming p-ss-d off. This problem is a double edged sword. We created it and management has taken advantage of it.

I understand and agree. You have to break down the problem. Why does management do all of this? The answer is very easy and simple. We as a craft over the years have allowed this to happen. Instead of doing our job, we took short cuts and management has become aware of this as OUR COMMON PRACTICE. When we want to do the correct work it has become harder for us because of OUR PAST PRACTICES. We are OUR OWN WORSE ENEMY. We created the demise of our craft of you really want to get down to the technicalities of the subject.

The thing is we try to take pride in our units. But management would rather us put a band aid on it and send it down the road. They howl and scream when our reliability is bad but yet will run absolute sh-- down the rails. The fleet will be in even more miserable shape after all this is over. Eventually all that broke sh-- is gonna have to come outta storage.

Not all of US union individuals are lazy. There are alot ot us that take alot of PRIDE and PROFESSIONALISM in what we do.

Soon all the lazy union folks will be MAPS off property and these young reliable workers will stand a chance. Make no mistake that delaying trains is a big deal in the discipline process now.

I fully agree. It's all based on seniority, but at the same time there is NO WORK ETHIC, PRIDE or any type of accountability and accomplishment. Yes we have lost great people, but none of you can tell me that we take Pride in what we do. We just want to stay unnoticed and make it. Dont you think that if we as a craft put forth greater more realiable units we might be able to save our jobs.

Furloughs are based on Senority Not Work Ethic !!

You Dont have to have a Work Ethic or Pride if your hire date is before Dec.2013.

During my time as a diesel mechanic for CN under Harrison. He worked with the unions. As long as you did your job he didn't care. He needed REALIABLE LOCOMOTIVES. Not band aid repair work. In a town hall meeting we had a guy ask why he was laying off a craft and he said if you WORK, I NEED YOU. he specifically said he pays us to work, not early quits but to work your shift hours as agreed upon. 8 hour day is 8 hours pay. He required us to always strive to become BETTER.

Go s--- a d--k Vena

Bn is the only railroad that built for the future. Look at thier intermodal network. Double tracked la to chicago. They use clovis the way we should use santa teresa. We are just too broke or gutless to do it, causing further network congestion and delay. They beat us in the pnw. We never built ogden the way it should have been built. They own the la basin by building out hobart and san bern. Kc, joliet, willow, alliance...the list goes on. Years of up inaction and mismanagement.

Jim Vena must be commenting.

I highly doubt BNSF really understand. If you dumb--ses could read, prior to BNSF Hunter Harrison had already implemented parts of PSR into Burlington Northern. The key isn't in moving trains. Its moving cars. Go out and learn to read books. Also if you a--holes can look up history, Pennsylvania Railroad started the entire PSR plan before it was even known.

BNSF will be the only railroad to come out head after all this mess is over

I've worked for CN during Hunter Harrison reign. PSR does work, in order for it to completely work correctly, you have to follow the entire playbook. Not just parts that you want. I'm a union representative and I'm all about the workers, but let's face it. We have some that are worthless and only want to do as little as they have to. I don't agree with management whatsoever, but as a craft we have become extremely lazy in our jobs. There is no pride in our workmanship, no sense of accomplishment or responsibility. We as a craft have become pushovers. I'm not saying to go out there and bust a--, but have pride in what we do. We as a craft are our own worse enemy.

If they re regulate the railroads, we will all be out of the job.

Everyone...and I mean everyone, knows that PSR is Bowlshit. And Rose is correct, the Feds WILL get involved if these rail execs get outta control. I would love to see them re-regulated -- Keep pushing the envelope you Jakases!!