OMAHA, Nebraska — Union Pacific is backtracking on its promises to make schedules more predictable for train crews to concerns about the quality of life that almost a national railway strike two years ago, according to the union representing engineers.
The nation’s largest railroad has told the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that Union Pacific is not getting enough work out of its engineers under new schedules and has had to hire more workers than planned. As a result, the company is seeking to amend the schedule improvement agreement it signed and recommended last year.
Where they are implemented, new schemes Union members say engineers need to make sure they can attend doctor’s appointments and keep important promises, such as attending their children’s activities or family gatherings.
“It’s been a game changer,” said Mark Ganong, who has worked for Union Pacific in Texas for 22 years. “I think it’s improved my quality of life — well, I’m sure it has. I think it’s improved my overall health, my attitude, my ability to plan things.”
The railroad says it still wants to stick to the signed schedule, but CEO Jim Vena said Union Pacific will have to change the deal that forced it to hire additional engineers to cover the shifts of employees who regularly get time off.
“The amount of work that we’re getting — the starts every 11 days that they’re available — is nowhere near what we or the union thought it would be,” Vena said. “So we’re just trying to figure out how to fix it or adjust it. But at the end of the day, we made a commitment to people. We signed an 11-and-four deal and we’re going to honor our commitments.”
The basic concept of the new schedule is that after engineers are available to operate trains for 11 consecutive days, they will get four days off in a row that they can plan in advance. There has to be at least one break between shifts within those 11 days, since federal regulations require engineers to have 24 hours off after four consecutive days of work, but it’s hard to predict where that time off will fall. The promised four days off are scheduled for the entire coming year.
This is a dramatic change for engineers who have been on call 24/7 for years, with only a few hours’ notice before they show up for work. In recent years, they have also been penalized for missing time off under a strict points system.
Gain paid sick days helped make the attendance system more manageable for the first time last year, but the inability to plan their days off is still taking its toll on technicians. Conductors, who belong to a separate union, face similar problems and still have no agreement to improve their schedules.
One of the first changes the railway company wants to implement is that drivers returning from their regular holidays will now be placed at the top of the list for the next train. However, this has the effect of pushing other drivers down and making their lives less predictable.
The BLET union went to court this summer to force Union Pacific to honor its agreements after missing a deadline in its scheduling agreement, but they have been unable to resolve the dispute and get new schedules for the approximately 60 percent of UP engineers who still don’t have them. They also want to make sure that engineers coming off of retirement are pushed to the bottom of the call list.
Nathan Rouse said he ended up missing so many birthdays, holidays, school events and other “things you don’t get back” that he quit the railroad nearly three years ago. Rouse said his daughter, now 13, has grown accustomed to him missing her dance recitals.
“She got so used to me being gone. It was like she just expected me to be gone more than I was home,” Rouse said. He may still have long hours at the chemical plant where he now works, but at least he’s home every night and knows when he’s free.
Engineer Travis Dye said he also nearly quit the railroad, despite working for UP in Kansas City, Missouri, for nearly two decades before getting the new schedule. He said it seemed like the railroad was finally paying attention to workers’ concerns after the strike was averted, but now he worries the issues aren’t getting as much public attention.
“I think they feel like they can get away with it now because it’s not talked about anymore,” Dye said.