I expected this to happen, and I expect it will continue. Why they felt it would be helpful, is hard to comprehend. They'll have a hard time getting people to hire on, under such conditions. https://railfan.com/bnsf-hi-viz-pol...id7S6ZrMymNMNX01CkYtJjZN-BVjhFMdZulBAGu8_6saA
Wow, that is by far, the most ridiculous idea I've heard ever! No thanks! Gonna' be some crew fatigue like no ones ever seen.....
Between PSR and this attendance thing, BNSF has found a way to drive off some really good people. It is just getting started. Just to use one example. When employees get to Denver, you can almost always count on being there 30 hrs before getting to come home. So look at it like this, 12hr trip to get there, a 30hr stay, then another 12hr to get home. This meant the 24-30 hr you should have gotten at home, you just spent in a hotel room. This means the phone is gonna ring about 10hrs after you get home. Try doing that for a month, without a day off. The RR will add all that time off at the away from home terminal. And report it as quality time off work, and say you were given more than enough time off. You can see how this is a problem. With the job market as it is today, some people are choosing their family over a hotel room. As this Hi Vis progresses, the people that are now or will be in trouble, their cases will go thru the discipline process, thereby more and more people will be gone. So it's not just the people that are quitting, it's the multitudes to come thru discipline. They are having great difficulty hiring people, much less keeping them. You got folks with 20+ years quitting, you got problems, and like I said it's just getting started. I know a guy that was on vacation and his flight home got cancelled, it took him 2 additional days to get home, he has 25 years a good employee and is in hi vis hell right now.
There are more and more people thinking and saying this is a all a ruse. After making the job so miserable people wont work there, the RR can say "see no body wants to work anymore, we need to go to single man, or man-less crewed trains". The beautiful thing for them is they can use supply chain issues and fears to finish their dirty work.
I don't work for a railroad, and if younger would not even consider a "Class(less) 1" operation. Even from the sidelines I can see exactly what you are saying is truth and it smells worse than a road killed skunk. But paper pushing dolts in the regulatory system will easily and quickly buy it; hook, line and sinker.
I wonder how BNSF non-operating personnel would react if a similar attendance policy was fashioned to compel their attendance.
Oooooooooo. Good one! I'd place my bet we'd see and hear both wailing and tantrums, to rival those of a preschooler.
Many non-operating positions can be blanked (not filled) if the incumbent is not able to show up for any of a variety of reasons, the reasoning being that the work will still be there the next day that they return to work, no sense in incurring additional expenses in filling the job. The same cannot be done with operating positions.
But what if those "non-operating" people were treated the same way as the train crews are now, under Hi-Viz? Oh, would there be an issue!
You bet your bippy they would take umbridge with the change in policy just like the operating crafts are.
The difficulty here is how the BNSantaFe holds all the cards. They want to go to automated trains from terminal to terminal. It has worked down under with their long cross country mining trains, so it must be going to work here?! Not having to pay an engineer and conductor will jack up their profits in the short term, while reducing small customer carloads some more. These large outfits have lost all sense of customer service, which is their biggest problem. They have no care for the people they employ or serve. I spoke with an engineer friend of mine, and he is aware of the strategy from the Railroad Company. The folk know that it is just a tool to get them to quit and force the issue of one man crews - then automated runs. And they worry about the safety and delay issues that will occur. In his nearly 40 year career he cannot count the number of times he or his conductor have been required to fix problems out on the main just to get through. For us, it's just going to be like watching a 'tragic comedy,' For the employees, it will just be a tragedy, loss of a dream job or the fun involved in it. Dagnabit!!
I think I have discovered the root of the problem. I saw this caption at External Feeds. "Boost Safety Culture With Asses". Now we all know what to do. I think that there is a surplus in a certain part of the country. As for me, I am glad I learned something new.
The most recent news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...164974c54_story.html?variant=c44b726edf25a662
I visited with an old freind yesterday that works for BNSF as a conductor. There are over 1,000 quits as of yesterday. Including her husband. However, BNSF doesn't acknowledge that it is that high a number before the STB. And BNSF is already asking the STB for permission to go to 1 man crews to help 'solve the problem' that they created. Typical.
But was it deliberate, a setup so they could go after the one man crew concept? It just smells much too obnoxious.
