It was worth a try.
As I seem to recall, he had already been disciplined for some infraction. Although the infraction might have been for something unrelated, and running through a yard switch isn’t the same as running through a main track switch, it can increase the chance for more severe discipline. I can think of a few fatal incidents over the years because a trainman/switchman was trying to prevent an incident that could get them fired or permanently terminated. (On the railroad “fired” is used for what others would call a suspension. Terminated or dismissed is a permanent condition, unless an arbitrator overturns the dismissal.)
There have been some officials who have said the best employee is one who’s afraid for their job. That’s a bunch of BS.
Jeff
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Many craft contracts limit maximum discipline time to 30 days. In ‘compliance’ with the contract, if the company feels that 30 days off is not sufficient discipline, the employee is terminated. With the termination, the employee’s union will then begin actions to try and get the employee reinstated - sometimes the employee is reinstated after several months after appeals to the company’s HR department, sometimes the procedures will progress through arbitration and/or Public Law Board hearings. Sometimes the arbitrator or the PLB will reinstate based on the evidence presented. Sometimes the company will reinstate an employee AFTER the employee has previously lost at every step along the path - with the employee having been away from the railroad for a year or two.
Discipline can be a very murky swamp, with nothing being clear cut at any level.
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