Reportedly BNSF is in critical meltdown in SE California. It has been reported that many crews in Needles, CA have walked off the job after a dispute with local officials. The same source reported that 214 trains are tied down between Chicago and Barstow. BNSF has chartered private jets to move crews to try and get things moving again.
Saturday, PM 07/.09 here at a starting point of the Soutern T-con…Last train thru here today was a couple of Eastbnds this morning…Also, so far this evening… NADA! ( Usually, about this time of day, there have been several!) Next yard would be Wellington, Ks… have not checked there… (Here) This is officially, Main #3 of Eldorado Sub…North side of Mulvane, Ks. Must be something to the reports…
Several places East of here that they use to ‘tie down’ trains (Start over East) at around Augsta,Ks. possibly Cottonwood Falls, and then [pick a likely spot) [:-^] From the South, start around Arkansas City, and then just pick some empty track… The Wchita Area(Broadway) Yard (North side)?
What is being disputed?
Since I have no knowledge.
I will take a WAG that it has to do the BNSF attendance policies and how they are or are not being enforced.
BNSF has announced they are hiring 3000 new employees - no details about where and for what.
Or how they will find them.
They don’t mention, however, the 1000 or more that have already quit. People that with the seniority they have usually don’t leave.
UP is having the same problem, but I haven’t heard our numbers of those leaving system wide. I don’t think they’re as bad as BNSF’s.
Jeff
Bingo! We’ve been trying to add about 10% more employees to our small company for about 2 years now. We pay well, with good benefits and we work Mon-Fri. I imagine filling railroad jobs would be quite a bit more difficult right now.
A chronic difficulty in hiring new employees is scientific proof that your pay is too low. The cost of everything else is being driven up by inflation. Why should wages be any different?
And giving only know-nothing do-nothing newbies a hiring bonus grows discontent in your current employees quckly.
I don’t think we’re offering hiring bonuses now. When we did, I never heard any discontent over them from those already here.
I don’t know if anyone actually received the full bonus. If there are any people left who were offered the bonus they’re probably still working to collect it. They didn’t pay the bonus in one lump sum, but increments after working so many days. Those that were furloughed and didn’t come back when recalled had to pay back any part of the bonus so far received.
Jeff
But “inflation” is not some magic inevitable invisible hand. It is driven in part by precisely this, which economists refer to as ‘rational expectations’.
Workers see the price of goods or services rise. They proactively respond to this by asking for a wage rate that maintains their current ‘buying power’ … but wages are a factor in goods and service pricing, so those rise (asynchronously, but in the aggregate, as in the ‘market basket’ contents used for things like COLA, an upward net trend)
Where the rational expectations come in is that workers anticipate increases in prices, and cause the factor price increase dynamically, or tie increases to trends in COLA increases. This accelerates the cycle.
It’s called ‘rational’ because it seems logical to get out in front of “inflation” effects.
Much of the ‘stagflation’ of the late Seventies becomes more comprehensible if this model is applied.
Were the former employees expected to pay it back all at once, or could they stretch that out over eternity, too?
Last Friday (7-8) BNSF had 215 trains tied down in yards, sidings or even some mainline sections awaiting a crew to board between Chicago & Los Angeles. Trains have been tied down west of Wellington for days at a time, even on 2nd main tracks. Extra baords at Amarillo & Winslow depleated. Last wk the Amaril bd called for 75 condrs w/no one assigned. Winslow is short close to 100 open slot Back in KS: a grain load for El Paso was tied down on one of the mains in El Dorado for over 24 hrs w/the normal parking sidings in Augusta full. In Wellington, on several occassions, shift yard jobs had to either be annulled for that trip or work w/a reduced crew account
Treat your work force like ca ca and you get rewarded with more ca ca.
I wonder if Warren Buffet is aware of this?
He will look at five, ten, fifteen, and twenty-year statistics and outlooks.
I’m sure he is. The question is whether he told his BNSF people to fix it or whether he’s going to step in himself. There are two things going on here. The first is the railroad getting gridlock. The second is that Buffett has always had a good public persona for doing the right thing and this looks bad.
Does Uncle Warren really run the company? BH is a publicly traded company.
The A shares are only $417,000 and change, can I sign you up for 1000 shares?