As I recall Boomers went from Railroad to Railroad looking for work…
A conducter might work a Western Railroad in the Summer and then a Southern Railroad in The Fall…Then between jobs he might work for a switching railroad or two between Jobs. None of them kept jobs for more then 6 months they just kept bouncing around with there union card
I was suprised to find out that the answer is yes. I know of a large shortline that occasionally hires engineers from a temp. service. Have FRA license will travel.
they aren’t going to bounce around on a class 1 as hoggers. Boomers sound to me like scabs.
The employees of the shortline I mention are represented by the BLE.
There aren’t as many places to boom to like there was 20 years ago.
you know i always wondered how that worked. i’m in the teamsters union and when i get laid off i go back into the hall awaiting my next call out. how’s that go with a railroad? maybe in a place such as chicago where every railroad goes, joe conductor gets laid off from NS…what are his options?
The last of the real boomers (and they weren’t scabs) faded out around World War II. It’d be hard to be a boomer today, stricter hiring practices and all. Today, with the large seniority districts of some of the roads, there’ve been guys who have been mini-boomers, if you will, but that was in an effort to keep working more than a desire for wanderlust.
Farmer, guy gets laid off from NS in Chicago, if he wants to work, he goes where his seniority permits on NS, it’s not like he can go down to the UTU hall and wait for another road to give him a holler
There are still boomers out there, not just rail related and they were not scabs. I’ve worked with union boilermakers and ironworker boomers in the last 5 years. If a local is busy they put the word out and people come from all over the U.S. if they need the work and like to travel. I’ve worked with some CHARACTERS from all over!