As we have seen with many other railroads the Iowa Interstate Railroad is now hiring, and has posted positions available, including engineers and conductors (at Blue Island), on their website. With the "help wanted" signs we're now seeing from both the majors and the regionals, does this mean they all have run out of applicants, and must go public to fill their needs? With unemployment currently about 5.6%, why is there a shortage of applicants? Bill Added link: Here is the Railseek link to the Iowa Interstate: Iowa Interstate at Railseek [ 08. April 2004, 12:23: Message edited by: Comet ]
You have me wondering. Perhaps it's an economic pickup? Perhaps people willing to work for a railroad, (away from home, family, etc), are becoming a little scarce? Boxcab E50
I work for the CSS. Five people were recently hired to fill vacancies. 2 quit within the first two weeks. The other three are still training. I have lost track over the past five years of how many people have been hired but I do know only two have stuck. Even with the benefits and knowing you will be home at the end of every trip the prospect of working all nighters and weekends seems to scare people away. I know the toughest part for me being on the extra board when I firt started was trying to live everyone elses lives. You could never make any plans.
AFN- Reading your post, it seems that I may have been fairly close with my guess. How long did it take for you to get off the extra board? Boxcab E50
From 1989 to 1993 I was a brakeman. I spent about half of that time on the board. When I started we had 4 man crews so jobs were fairly plentiful. When the new ownership took over the fourth man was eliminated forcing me to the board. I took promotion to engineer in 1993 and spent another two years on the extra board. So it comes down to about 5-7 years. The engineers board was probably worse than the brakemans board because we were forced to protect all three crafts. (conductor and brakeman) Because of the inability to keep new hires the youngest engineer and conductor can look forward to many years on the board. At this time we have only two non promoted men and no classes will be offered until more men can be added to the roster. AF Niederer
I actually looked into the IAIS back when I was getting burned out on the CSS board in the early 90's. I was a former Rock Island employee from Ottawa, Il. and the prospect of working through familiar territory appealed to me. However the wage and benefits were and still are better on the CSS. AF Niederer
AFN, did you by any chance write a series of articles (3, I think) about the CSS a few years back? Thanks, Bill
