Expensive toys. The steam program and UP’s Olympian-sized business car fleet are two of Union Pacific’s gems. They are also costing it millions per year. You call this public relations; Hunter would call it money thrown into the wind. So is Union Pacific serious?
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I want to know how can UP furlough while making money hand over fist, and cut out small customers, but we can't strike?
The 25k bonuses are also not being paid because people we laid off. They are with holding part of it saying being furloughed doesn't count towards getting the rest of the bonus.
Here's a copy & paste from another post that seems relevant:
UP has always been big on gestures and public relations. The reasons why are obvious.
Considering the sanguinary, exploitative, and avaricious history of the railroads (especially UP), complete with genocide, indentured labor, and the violent suppression of worker resistance to deplorable working conditions, it can be said that their present business model is every bit as ruthless, only now what was previously accomplished by force is now accomplished with contracts, lobbying, and litigation.
In the latest installment of their shared madness, they've taken to cannibalizing their own workforce (the most important part of any business) to meet a set of nebulous performance metrics that have no verifiable basis in economic theory.
Since UP leadership apparently has little insight, let alone foresight (myopia seems to be a prerequisite for gaining entry to the boardroom), we can only assume that UP will remain what it always has been:
All style, and no substance.
Lance likes luxury too much, he’s addicted. This is a comfort project for him. He steals food from your children’s mouths so he can have lobsters and highballs on his personal dining car.
They offered 25k bonuses so they could meet their PTC deadline. Layoffs started shortly after PTC was completed.
As someone who works between Cheyenne and Green River where they actually spend, and continue to spend millions on a piece of junk that barely works...I'm disgusted. Nothing made me happier then to see it derail in Rawlins. I'm also curious as to why less than a year ago they were paying kids 25000 hiring bonuses (which they renigged on) and less than a year later theyre furloughing deeper than they hired.