Rail Workers Revolt against Driving Solo

[Scuba]

Hey, what's the safety of crew and passengers compared to profits? And why are union officers negotiating in secret?


http://www.labornotes.org/2014/08/rail-workers-revolt-against-driving-solo

“There’s a real rank-and-file rebellion going on right now,” says Jen Wallis, a Seattle switchman-conductor for Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway. “People who’ve never been involved in the union, never went to a union meeting, they are showing up and they’re joining Railroad Workers United in droves. “People are saying, ‘We have to take action now to stop it. We can’t let our union officers do this to us.’”

What’s all the fuss? On July 16, thousands of railroaders abruptly learned their union officers had held secret negotiations with BNSF, one of the country’s biggest freight carriers, and reached a deal to allow single-person train crews: a safety disaster.

Ballots on the tentative agreement went out in early August, and are due back in early September. If the vote goes up, huge freight trains could rumble through towns across the western U.S. with just an engineer onboard, no conductor. This would be a first on a major railway, and a foot in the door for the whole industry. BNSF is owned by Warren Buffett, one of the world’s richest people.

“Members had no clue this was even coming,” said John Paul Wright, a locomotive engineer working out of Louisville, Kentucky. “The membership is basically saying, “What in the hell is going on? We never thought our own union would sell us out.’” Wright is co-chair of the cross-union, rank-and-file group Railroad Workers United, which has been campaigning against the looming threat of single-person crews for a decade. With just weeks to go, its members are suddenly busy sending out “vote no” stickers and appealing to local labor councils to pass resolutions backing two-person crews.

[TwilightGardener]

1. I can't overstate how huge of a disaster this will be. Public safety WILL be threatened.

Warren Buffet needs to account for this. Some insider knowledge: What the union and management are offering is to guarantee current conductors JOBS FOR LIFE, and then they'll only be used for local work--no more long trips, just helping the engineer bring the trains into and out of the yard and covering assigned trackage to assist in case the engineer runs into trouble. The deal is, job security, a huge raise, plus shift work and home every night as incentive. Then BNSF will phase out hiring future conductors, for the most part, they obviously won't be needed in the numbers BNSF has them now. My husband is a Class 1 conductor, and he can't conceive of the engineer doing that job all by himself. The conductor keeps track of everything: mileposts, switching, track warrants, special rules, communicating with dispatch, either as a backup or primary duty. The conductor actually gets out of the damn train and walks a mile and takes care of problems, he's responsible for the cars. And most of all, they keep each other awake, or act as a second pair of eyes/ears when the dispatcher gives bad instructions or there's a signal. Just a horribly bad idea.

[CrispyQ]

2. Good grief, who could possibly think one man crews are a good idea?

Crucially, the conductor also helps make sure the engineer is still awake and alert. If that sounds like it shouldn’t be necessary, consider how freight railroaders are generally scheduled: on 12-hour shifts and on-call 24/7, with no predictable schedule.

“Sometimes you’re up 48 hours at a time, with maybe five hours of sleep,” says Wallis. “There have been times we’re both hallucinating at 3 o’clock in the morning, trying to keep each other awake.”

The conductor may also be teaching the engineer details of the complex job. “It takes about two years to really learn what you’re doing,” Wallis said. “It’s this classroom in the cab. It’s scary, you could have two people in the cab with six months’ experience between them. But at least there’s two of them.”

And the conductor is on hand in case the engineer has, say, a heart attack while at the helm of a 15,000-ton train. As SMART Transportation Division President John Previsich pointed out in a memo opposing the BNSF deal, “No one would permit an airliner to fly with just one pilot, even though they can fly themselves.”

- See more at: http://www.labornotes.org/2014/08/rail-workers-revolt-against-driving-solo#sthash.mzUMXwP3.dpuf

[LostInAnomie]

3. As a conductor, I'm torn on this deal.

It would be a ridiculous upgrade in the pay and quality of life for many conductors. Huge signing, no over-night trips, guarantee against furlough, and a lot of other perks that come with it. It would be very hard to turn down.

I don't work for bnsf, but I work for a similar class one railroad. I have told my union brothers that like it of not, positive train control is coming and we have to get out in front of it. We can either try to put our foot down and squash it right now, or we can try to cut the best possible deal for ourselves. The technology is there and the railroads will use it if they get the opportunity.

The only real catch is the safety issue. Engineers would be alone, miles from no-where, with little rest and no one to keep them awake. Sure, they habe alerters in the cab to make sure they are awake every 50 sec., but a lot can happen in 50 sec. if no one is paying attention.

[Jazzgirl]

4. I was informed of this agreement by a friend of mine

an ex-coworker from BNSF (I retired this year). I knew this would blow up. Technology not there yet to allow this safely. The idea is frightening. I've ridden on enough freight trains and been around ton of trainmen/women over the last 40 years to know this won't end well.