News about BNSF's attendence policy

BoxcabE50 Apr 15, 2022

  1. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    I believe it was deliberate. And in keeping with their usual practice.
     
  2. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    An interesting bit of testimony from someone who is in the business,

     
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  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I saw that footage. It's in one my prior posted links. I can't wait to see how BNSF tries to blacklist him, use other mistreatments....
     
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  4. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    Yeah.........I made a new friend at the Livingston/Helena Railfair that is looking to get started on BNSF. I hope he can handle it. It may be easy for him now as he is young and single. He is aware of the controversy of the HiViz, so at least he is going in with both eyes open.
     
  5. 57A26

    57A26 TrainBoard Member

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    The STB does not regulate railroads as to items like crew consist. The FRA would be the one, IF there was a federal law on the subject. There currently isn't one. Some states are working on crew consist requirements, but there's nothing at the federal level. In the past, the FRA was of the opinion that Federal Preemption overruled State's attempt at regulating issues such as crew consists, train length, and blocked crossings. That mindset has changed, for know. Outside of any possible State requirement, railroads don't need permission to go to a single person crew. Crew consists are determined by labor contracts.

    UP has had a similar attendence policy for some time. Instead of subtracting points for laying off, ours adds points. They're not designed to make people quit or not want to work so they can claim they must go to single person crews. That's just icing on their cake. They are designed to have the fewest people possible on the active payroll.

    About Rio Tinto in Australia. I would like to know how well it works. Not what Rio Tinto, KNORR/New York Air Brake, or others involved with the equipment say, but those who deal with it. We have some of the same KNORR/NYAB auto throttle systems (though not complete automation) and they fail quite often. Most are minor and recoverable, some are such that manual operation is required.
     
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  6. HemiAdda2d

    HemiAdda2d Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Interesting testimony--seeing how he works for the union now, is he even on BNSF payroll? Still, federal whistleblower protections should be in effect. No matter what your job, federal law provides protections against reprisal, and other retaliatory actions.
     
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  7. 308GTSi

    308GTSi TrainBoard Member

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    The comparison is difficult.
    Rio has supposedly spent about $1 Billion dollars getting Autohaul working. Thats for a railroad 2000kms in length. The iron ore lines in Western Australia are very remote and have almost no contact with humans ........ serious ...... there is nothing out there ! Have a look on Google earth and start at Dampier Western Australia and follow the line out into the desert.
    Rio doesn't have other railroads on their track (from what I remember) so no major scheduling problems caused by problems cascading down from something that happened hundreds of kilometres away on someone else's railway.

    I suppose a good comparison would be putting a 10 self driving car on a race track all nicely spaced apart and letting them go at sensible speeds ....... or putting a self driving car on I95 and having someone do something stupid in front of it !

    Track standards in the Pilbara are very high compared to a lot of US railroads. A big telephoto lens on a video camera can show cars moving a little sideway on US rails. In the Pilbara trains run almost eerily smooth and its probably because of the train weight and frequency requires very well laid and maintained track.
    The only major derailment recently was on BHP which is a manned railroad ..... driver only though. One of the problems facing driver only is if something happens and the train has to be stopped is getting enough hand brakes on cars to secure it. 36000 metric tonnes trains are the normal trains there.

    Aside from trains some Haulpacks (big trucks at the mines) and drill rigs are autonomous to. I don't think you could say the corporation is covering up failures and wide spread problems. The company is making money ...... a lot of money ! Pay rates for the humans are very good.

    Their web page is worth a few minute reading. https://www.riotinto.com/Operations/australia/pilbara
    Its kind of funny how it is mostly about automated everything and then right at the bottom it talks about "Careers". !!! LOL

    So could it work in the USA .......... yeah ........... but ........... the civil infrastructure changes / improvements would be massive.
    Just keeping cars off tracks in the USA would be a nightmare. The FRA site shows incidents happening in the thousands. I remember a news article here showing someone left a car on the rail somewhere in the Pilbara a couple of years ago ..... yeah , a car !.......... almost no people means nothing interferes with the trains.

    https://oli.org/track-statistics/collisions-fatalities-state
     
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  8. mmi16

    mmi16 TrainBoard Member

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    Australia has 2.968 MILLION Square Miles of land area and a population of 25.74 million people. In comparison California has a population of over 39 Million.

    While 'roos out number people in Australia 2 to 1, bats out number 'roos. Thus the term batsh.t crazy.
     
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  9. 308GTSi

    308GTSi TrainBoard Member

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    LOL , Naaaaahhh , , its the heat that makes us a bit nuts ....... and that is my photo from home !
    Hermitage Place 50 degrees 4.jpg
     
  10. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Any feedback on how his venture progressed, if at all?
     
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  11. badlandnp

    badlandnp TrainBoard Member

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    The Havre job washed. He was told that we are 'hiring you to fire you,' then chewed him out for a simple difference in his training out east. Out of four hiree's he was the last to walk away, on day 4!

    They had managed to get 4 hiree's out of 16 needed. Chased them all off.

    Now, he was bugged by the Whitefish bunch to come out and interview. He is currently there waiting on Amtrak to resume eastbound trips. They had an interview he felt went well. They are looking for a bunch there also. His hope is that it will go better there, but we will see. It is still the SF and their attitude is, well, poor to put it politely.

    All of that makes me glad I am no longer dealing with them as an employer.
     
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  12. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I am told there is a certain instructor in that Havre bunch who is a real south end of a northbound donkey, and the "chewing out" part is a fit for that person. Yet they keep that person employed.
     
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  13. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    It is thought the carriers are, by virtue of passive discouragement, getting new hire trainee's, to abandon their new positions to further the carriers positions that "We cant get anyone to work here anymore" to further their push to change crew consist agreements, towards single man and eventually no crew members on these trains.

    On another carrier (UP) here is some not so new news.
    https://northplattebulletin.com/up-rolls-out-defined-process-to-eliminate-train-conductors/
    No time like the Holidays to announce your trying to layoff half your crews huh?
     
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  14. 308GTSi

    308GTSi TrainBoard Member

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    So they want to go to this system .......... :(

    https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2018/rair/ro-2018-018

     
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  15. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Yeah. Great timing. Too bad there isn't a way to do the same to a huge bunch of corporate bigwigs. Crush them spiritually, and their lives at this time of year. See how it feels to be flushed down the toilet. But since too many have fat bank accounts and golden parachutes, they'd just play more golf and be quite happy.
     
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  16. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    The cost in that caption... Wow!

    This is not the type of cargo material which is the hazmat we'd face in North America. But it's cheaper to write off this stuff by accounting, than to have human eyes aboard. Now, if our bean counters were unable to write off these costs, there'd be crews aboard again, really fast.
     
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