Union Pacific is holding again on its guarantees to make schedules extra predictable for practice crews to handle the high quality of life issues that just about brought on a nationwide rail strike two years in the past, in response to the union that represents engineers.
The nation’s largest railroad has instructed the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that Union Pacific isn’t getting sufficient work out of its engineers anymore beneath the brand new schedules and needed to rent extra staff than it deliberate, so the corporate needs to alter the schedule enchancment settlement it signed and touted final 12 months.
The place they’ve been applied, the new schedules make it attainable for engineers to attend physician’s appointments and maintain essential guarantees to point out up for his or her children’ actions or household gatherings, union members say.
“It’s been a game changer,” mentioned Mark Ganong, who has labored for Union Pacific in Texas for 22 years. “I think it’s improved my quality of life — well, I know it has. I think it’s improved my overall health, my attitude and my ability to schedule things.”
The railroad says it nonetheless plans to stay as much as the schedule settlement it signed, however CEO Jim Vena mentioned Union Pacific must tweak the deal that pressured it to rent extra engineers to cowl the shifts of staff getting common break day.
“The amount of work we’re getting — the starts per the 11 days that they’re available — is not anywhere near where both us or the union thought it was going to be,” Vena mentioned. “So we’re just trying to figure out how we can fix or tweak it. But at the end of the day, we’ve committed to people. We signed an 11-and-four deal and we’ll live up to our commitments.”
The fundamental idea of the brand new schedule is that after engineers stay accessible to drive trains for 11 days in a row they get 4 days off in a row that they’ll plan on forward of time. Inside these 11 days, there must be no less than one break between shifts as a result of federal guidelines require 24 hours off after engineers work 4 straight days, but it surely’s onerous to foretell the place that point off will fall. The promised 4 days off are scheduled out for your entire 12 months forward.
This represents a dramatic shift for engineers who’ve primarily been on-call 24-7 for years, with solely a pair hours discover earlier than reporting to work. Lately, additionally they acquired penalized for lacking any break day beneath a strict factors system.
Gaining paid sick days for the primary time final 12 months helped make the attendance system extra manageable, however not with the ability to plan on their days off nonetheless takes a toll on engineers. Conductors, who belong to a separate union, face related struggles, and nonetheless don’t have any sort of settlement in place to enhance their schedules.
One of many preliminary modifications the railroad is making an attempt is that engineers who’re getting back from their scheduled break day are actually being put on the high of the checklist for the subsequent practice, however that has the consequence of bumping different engineers down and making their lives much less predictable.
The BLET union went to court docket this summer time to attempt to drive Union Pacific to conform after it missed the deadline within the schedule settlement, but it surely hasn’t been in a position to resolve the dispute and get the brand new schedules for the roughly 60% of UP engineers who nonetheless lack it. Additionally they need to guarantee that engineers coming off relaxation go to the underside of the decision checklist.
Nathan Rouse mentioned he lastly missed so many birthdays, holidays, college occasions and different “things you can’t get back” that he walked away from the railroad virtually three years in the past. Rouse mentioned his daughter, now 13, had gotten used to him lacking her dance recitals.
“She kind of grew so accustomed to me being gone. It was just kind of like she expected me gone more than home,” Rouse mentioned. He nonetheless might need lengthy days on the chemical plant the place he works now, however no less than he’s house every night time and is aware of when he might be off.
Engineer Travis Dye mentioned he additionally almost give up the railroad regardless of having labored for UP in Kansas Metropolis, Missouri for almost 20 years earlier than he acquired the brand new schedule. He mentioned it appeared just like the railroad was lastly addressing staff’ issues after the strike was averted, however now he worries that the problems aren’t getting as a lot public consideration.
“I think they feel like they can get away with it now because it’s not being talked about it anymore,” Dye mentioned.
