What happened ?
Posted by Lou on Nov 17, 2009
Hello loyal Visitors. You may wonder why there is nothing new on my Website since several weeks. The reason is simple – but also a bad reason. My frustration level being furlough is very high and for some time I really lost some interest in Railroading. I will try to make up for that and post more.
The last few weeks were pretty tied for my family and me since there is no income and no future light at the horizon getting back to work soon. This year (2009) I worked only 2 trips as a conductor so far. A few days here and there helped to keep the Health Insurance rolling. That is a big relief and I am very thankful for that.
The future didn’t look very bright to us this year and in the near future there is no relief. Since this ’stupid’ seniority stuff is not going away there will be never a chance for us lower seniority guys get a regular work. Just thinking about it makes me mad. Several guys are working on positions they don’t like. Therefore the motivation is not always the best. I can understand that old Rails have the right to get better positions. But this whole system is not right. You bid on a job and if you ‘win’ you keep the job – and you like the job and will do the best and get motivated to work because it was your decision to work this job. And don’t forget the safety aspect: Getting every day on a new job in territory you are not so familiar with is a dangerous thing. If I work the same job every day I know where the derails are located, where a slow order is in effect and how things are rolling.
Make long things short : I don’t like how stuff works. And since there is no chance – and there will never be one – …. you get the point.
Promise : I will start posting more.
Yours Lou
Its been real tough for all of us railroaders. I worked for the BNSF for the past two years and am currently furloughed. The best answers that I can give my friends is not to wait around for the railroad to help you out. As a furloughed employee you are not a concern for them. Thery are only concerned with paying stock dividends to shareholders and in increasing their profit margins. The railroads could easily keep all of their furloughed employees working, but they have no motivation to do so. Our unions also are a part of the problem they can offer nothing to a furloughed employee but the garantee of a job when work does return. I have given many of my friends the advice from the beginning to continue with life. Find a job return to college keep on living because this furlough is going to last for some time. Even when we get recalled it will be only for peak months and then back to the furlough. This is how the railroads operate.
I have studied the data for the BNSF and am convinced that through retirement of oldheads and recall of employees that I will not be recalled for fulltime duties until sometime after the spring of 2011. All of the railroads were geared up for 2006-2007 levels of operation. They are currently at levels of traffic that are 20 percent lower than those levels. What this means is that they can run a streamlined business on mostly clear track without delays and with as few employees as possible. We will work again if we want to, but in the meantime we should carry on with our lives, for even when we are recalled it will be like being a new hire all over, with the possiblity of furlough aroud the holidays of 2011 and 2012. I base this on the data I have analized from railfax and the average number of furloughed employees in 2009.