BLET & SMART unions attempt to strike over Norfolk Southern crew practices.

[AlexanderFan]

I’m no longer in the railroad industry, but this is potentially huge news, especially with the logistics troubles the nation is facing.

To put it simply, when NS is short on conductors to fill the trains they’ve been calling locomotive engineers to fill the vacancies on the trains. Employees are facing discipline if they don’t go. The situation becomes cloudy when you factor in that these employees are extra board workers, which means they have no set time to report for work. What they do have, however, is achronological list of when those employees returned home and what time they can potentially be called back to work. As an extra board employee you attempt to schedule your life by guessing when you will work. By calling these engineers unexpectedly NS is piling up disciplinary actions on employee records which could ultimately lead to dismissal. There’s more to the issue, but here’s a copy of the joint release.


Unions join together to thwart Norfolk Southern’s effort to eliminate train service crafts
CLEVELAND, (Sept. 30, 2021) — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have joined forces to defeat efforts by Norfolk Southern Railway to supplant the train service crafts of conductors and brakemen by calling locomotive engineers to work their assignments.

BLET National President Dennis Pierce and SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson issued the following joint statement regarding their action:

“On October 24, 2018, Norfolk Southern Railway announced plans to implement Precision Scheduled Railroading. PSR is an operational scheme that makes irrational cuts to employment, maintenance and service levels to generate artificially higher profit rates for hedge funds and similar investors.

“Because of PSR, NS has eliminated the jobs of over 35% of its operating crew members since December 2018. NS also has been fighting since the summer of 2019 to cut the size of operating crews by half.

“As part of its plan to simply eliminate the train service crafts of conductor and brakeman, NS has willfully depleted its train service workforce. The shortage of conductors and brakemen is so severe that NS started ordering locomotive engineers — under threat of termination for insubordination — to work conductor positions even though both the BLET Agreement and the SMART-TD Agreement prohibit the use of locomotive engineers in train service positions.

“Today, our unions have initiated legal actions that are intended to compel NS to follow our contracts and obey the laws of our land. NS cannot lawfully lay off roughly 4,000 conductors and brakemen, and then give their work to another craft. Nor can NS lawfully deprive locomotive engineers of the jobs, wages and working conditions to which they are contractually entitled by forcing them to perform the work of other crafts.”

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I’m no longer in the railroad industry, but this is potentially huge news, especially with the logistics troubles the nation is facing.

To put it simply, when NS is short on conductors to fill the trains they’ve been calling locomotive engineers to fill the vacancies on the trains. Employees are facing discipline if they don’t go. The situation becomes cloudy when you factor in that these employees are extra board workers, which means they have no set time to report for work. What they do have, however, is achronological list of when those employees returned home and what time they can potentially be called back to work. As an extra board employee you attempt to schedule your life by guessing when you will work. By calling these engineers unexpectedly NS is piling up disciplinary actions on employee records which could ultimately lead to dismissal. There’s more to the issue, but here’s a copy of the joint release.


Unions join together to thwart Norfolk Southern’s effort to eliminate train service crafts
CLEVELAND, (Sept. 30, 2021) — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have joined forces to defeat efforts by Norfolk Southern Railway to supplant the train service crafts of conductors and brakemen by calling locomotive engineers to work their assignments.

BLET National President Dennis Pierce and SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson issued the following joint statement regarding their action:

“On October 24, 2018, Norfolk Southern Railway announced plans to implement Precision Scheduled Railroading. PSR is an operational scheme that makes irrational cuts to employment, maintenance and service levels to generate artificially higher profit rates for hedge funds and similar investors.

“Because of PSR, NS has eliminated the jobs of over 35% of its operating crew members since December 2018. NS also has been fighting since the summer of 2019 to cut the size of operating crews by half.

“As part of its plan to simply eliminate the train service crafts of conductor and brakeman, NS has willfully depleted its train service workforce. The shortage of conductors and brakemen is so severe that NS started ordering locomotive engineers — under threat of termination for insubordination — to work conductor positions even though both the BLET Agreement and the SMART-TD Agreement prohibit the use of locomotive engineers in train service positions.

“Today, our unions have initiated legal actions that are intended to compel NS to follow our contracts and obey the laws of our land. NS cannot lawfully lay off roughly 4,000 conductors and brakemen, and then give their work to another craft. Nor can NS lawfully deprive locomotive engineers of the jobs, wages and working conditions to which they are contractually entitled by forcing them to perform the work of other crafts.”

Seeing this in many industries now. Banking comes to mind. They call it "cross-training"...

 

[Ole Man Dan]

Seeing this in many industries now. Banking comes to mind. They call it "cross-training"...

That is why my wife retired early. Big banking has become a cut throat occupation these days. They combine jobs and give the employees higher quotas to meet, but no pay increase.
International Banking is buying smaller banks, and forcing out older employees by changing their duties, combining jobs ect... but requiring higher numbers of sales. Now days lots of employees are looking elsewhere, because the future inside banks is dim. Banks spent about 10 years urging customers to use internet banking, thus the employees don't have business relations with the very people banks now want to have the employees calling...

 

[AlexanderFan]

Seeing this in many industries now. Banking comes to mind. They call it "cross-training"...

You have to be a qualified conductor to become a qualified engineer. Engineer certification is a forced promotion according to your seniority. So NS is laying off conductors, attempting to fill the vacancies with higher paid employees, refuse those employees the difference in pay as required by the agreement, and discipline the engineers when they are out of place to fill a vacancy they aren’t required to protect under the working agreement.

Like Dan’s banking analogy, the industry is at the edge of a shift in normal procedures. The companies want conductors stationed along routes with vehicles to assist trains. No longer would there be a two person crew on each train. This tactic is just an attempted way around negotiating with the unions over this enormous change of operating procedure.

 

[deliveryman35]

That is why my wife retired early. Big banking has become a cut throat occupation these days. They combine jobs and give the employees higher quotas to meet, but no pay increase.
International Banking is buying smaller banks, and forcing out older employees by changing their duties, combining jobs ect... but requiring higher numbers of sales. Now days lots of employees are looking elsewhere, because the future inside banks is dim. Banks spent about 10 years urging customers to use internet banking, thus the employees don't have business relations with the very people banks now want to have the employees calling...

Technology and automation are shrinking the workforce in banking and in retail. I was treated similarly to how your wife was—I was with a company for 24 years that decided to eliminate my position and turn around and offer me a ‘new’ position that was nothing more than increased responsibilities at the same rate of pay. It’s a way for companies to purge their workforce of older, higher-paid employees and then hire younger replacements that will work for fewer benefits and less pay.

 

[Its On A Slab]

I’m no longer in the railroad industry, but this is potentially huge news, especially with the logistics troubles the nation is facing.

To put it simply, when NS is short on conductors to fill the trains they’ve been calling locomotive engineers to fill the vacancies on the trains. Employees are facing discipline if they don’t go. The situation becomes cloudy when you factor in that these employees are extra board workers, which means they have no set time to report for work. What they do have, however, is achronological list of when those employees returned home and what time they can potentially be called back to work. As an extra board employee you attempt to schedule your life by guessing when you will work. By calling these engineers unexpectedly NS is piling up disciplinary actions on employee records which could ultimately lead to dismissal. There’s more to the issue, but here’s a copy of the joint release.


Unions join together to thwart Norfolk Southern’s effort to eliminate train service crafts
CLEVELAND, (Sept. 30, 2021) — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have joined forces to defeat efforts by Norfolk Southern Railway to supplant the train service crafts of conductors and brakemen by calling locomotive engineers to work their assignments.

BLET National President Dennis Pierce and SMART-TD President Jeremy Ferguson issued the following joint statement regarding their action:

“On October 24, 2018, Norfolk Southern Railway announced plans to implement Precision Scheduled Railroading. PSR is an operational scheme that makes irrational cuts to employment, maintenance and service levels to generate artificially higher profit rates for hedge funds and similar investors.

“Because of PSR, NS has eliminated the jobs of over 35% of its operating crew members since December 2018. NS also has been fighting since the summer of 2019 to cut the size of operating crews by half.

“As part of its plan to simply eliminate the train service crafts of conductor and brakeman, NS has willfully depleted its train service workforce. The shortage of conductors and brakemen is so severe that NS started ordering locomotive engineers — under threat of termination for insubordination — to work conductor positions even though both the BLET Agreement and the SMART-TD Agreement prohibit the use of locomotive engineers in train service positions.

“Today, our unions have initiated legal actions that are intended to compel NS to follow our contracts and obey the laws of our land. NS cannot lawfully lay off roughly 4,000 conductors and brakemen, and then give their work to another craft. Nor can NS lawfully deprive locomotive engineers of the jobs, wages and working conditions to which they are contractually entitled by forcing them to perform the work of other crafts.”

People say unions are evil. They have their faults, but this is a prime example of why they are necessary. And we wouldn't have the concept of "weekends", "PTOs", and employer-sponsored health/dental without them.

 

[Its On A Slab]

Technology and automation are shrinking the workforce in banking and in retail. I was treated similarly to how your wife was—I was with a company for 24 years that decided to eliminate my position and turn around and offer me a ‘new’ position that was nothing more than increased responsibilities at the same rate of pay. It’s a way for companies to purge their workforce of older, higher-paid employees and then hire younger replacements that will work for fewer benefits and less pay.

I spent 2015-2020 with a major banking software company, and the same thing was going on there.

The Feds require that, during a layoff, the ages of those laid off are to be listed.

They made an attempt to make it across the board, but the majority of my layoff list were people in their late 50s/early-to-mid 60s. It was blatantly obvious.

And my job function was a single point of failure. I had taken on the responsibilities of two 20-yr associates who had either moved on or retired.

The trend was to send that kind of work offshore(India).

But it worked out great for me. Even with the pandemic depressing the job market, I ended up with a 15% raise and a really good company(that treats its' employees well).

 

[AlexanderFan]

A judge has to rule that this practice is a major procedure change to continue to a vote for a work stoppage. The Local Chairmen have their ballots and have begun to poll their constituents. When the ruling is passed down, the ballots will be turned in and counted.

Don’t expect much in the way of excitement. Railroad workers fall into the same category as air traffic controllers, meaning they will be put right back to work almost as soon as they vote to strike. This hiccup could still further complicate our terrible logistics situation we find ourselves in.

 

[Chukker Veteran]

All in all, I'd much rather have unions than not.

 

[crimsonaudio]

All in all, I'd much rather have unions than not.

Yup - there are plenty of examples of modern unions that exist simply to exist, but when these large corporations decide to screw people for the bottom line it's generally not possible for the individual to fight it.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

That is why my wife retired early. Big banking has become a cut throat occupation these days. They combine jobs and give the employees higher quotas to meet, but no pay increase.
International Banking is buying smaller banks, and forcing out older employees by changing their duties, combining jobs ect... but requiring higher numbers of sales. Now days lots of employees are looking elsewhere, because the future inside banks is dim. Banks spent about 10 years urging customers to use internet banking, thus the employees don't have business relations with the very people banks now want to have the employees calling...

Pretty spot on. One niece, after 35 years with the same bank, and one acquisition, it's now going through another. IF she were to stay on, she would have her responsibilities increased at the same pay. Another niece, by marriage, quit the bank she'd been with 30 years, as personnel continued to be cut and, as a branch manager, their responsibilities landed back on her. She went with a newly-organized bank...

 

[Ole Man Dan]

Pretty spot on. One niece, after 35 years with the same bank, and one acquisition, it's now going through another. IF she were to stay on, she would have her responsibilities increased at the same pay. Another niece, by marriage, quit the bank she'd been with 30 years, as personnel continued to be cut and, as a branch manager, their responsibilities landed back on her. She went with a newly-organized bank...

Barbara Ann went thru three acquisitions, she was Assistant Mgr. and was offered teller pay the last time around. That did it. Barbara Ann Pulled the Pin and walked away at 62 for early retirement. She has been retired 4 years now. She's happy, and I like her being retired too.