Some roads appear to have a fairly content workforce while others are struggling with a workforce that appears to be angry and frustrated. What are the main issues among the discontented…is it longer hours?..pay?..safety? What are the roads with happy employees doing that the others should be doing?
The workforce at any railroad will have it’s groups and divides through the ranks. You’ll get the different “clicks” of guys that tend to have similar personalities and attitudes toward the jobs. Every railroad has it’s unhappy people, and it’ll have people that love their job so much that nothing will bother them.
If you look at the Class 1’s, you’ll find that safety and operating practices are nearly the same. You’ll see that companies such as Rail America also follow the lead of the bigger railroads when it comes to safety and operating practices.
Pay is also something you can’t really compare between railroads unless you look at what people are taking home for their hours worked. When I was making 12$ / hour as a “senior conductor” for a short line, I enjoyed my job for entirely different reasons I do now as I make over 20$ / hour working a decent sized manifest 4 nights a week.
When I worked for the short line, I was home every day (or night) to see my live-in girlfriend, had time on the weekends to hangout with friends, and brought home enough to cover the bills but that was about it.
Now that I’m working for a larger railroad, I’m making a lot more money. I’m putting money away in savings, have paid off some outstanding debt, re-organized my finances, and am living comfortably instead of worrying paycheck to paycheck. The trade off is that I’m in a hotel at minimum of two nights a week. I’m also an “on call” employee on a bid pool-service job for a manifest over a two hundred or so mile stretch of 40 mph track.
It all comes down to individual personalities and making the best of it. For me, I love being able to essentially what is a 36 “on” (1 shift + rest at hotel + 1 shift) and having 36 “off” where i know I won’t be going back out over the road.
Thanks for the detailed reply GraniteRailroader…what you say makes sense.
No rr has a content workforce and there is no such thing as a happy rr employee. The culture & enviroment will differ rr to rr. I work w/ some folks who came over from NS and KCS and they say BNSF is a much better outfit to work for w/ management which isn’t so Hitler iron fisted. Local managers do make a big difference in how one feels about their employer. One terminal may have good guys running the place, the next terminal could be nothing but TM;s who don’t know the difference between a drawbar and a knuckle pin.When you have good guys to work for, it will make you want to do a good job but when its the othr way around, why bother?
Having had the opportunity to work around a number of diverse terminals in the 1970’s and in the 2000’s. The personality of those terminals in the 70’s has carried through into the 21st Century. Those terminals where the work force had a ‘good attitude’ have retained that good attitude over the years. The terminals that had ‘difficult’ attitudes, are still difficult today. The attitudes and work ethics of localities are handed down from one generation of employees to the next.
One thing’s for sure. I’m sure it sucks in the long cold winter!
Belt -
I see that every day on the railroad I work for. The terminal I’m assigned to has the “Super Senior” people within it’s ranks. We’ve got the top 50% of the roster for the most part, with a few stragglers that are at the mid-bottom. There is definately a change in attitude between terminals. Most of the “Super Seniors” have 30+ years in, and are waiting to hit the age. Some of them are out there to “stick it to the man”, while others are a great enjoyment to work with because they went through the same grumpy attitudes when they first hired out that many of the “Super Seniors” convey.
Bubba -
It sucks in the cold winter - where it seems like NONE of the cab heaters work.
It sucks in the spring rains - where you ALWAYS find yet another whole in your rain slicker
It sucks in the hot summer - where the company just seems to “conveniently” run out of drinking water on the hottest days.
It sucks in the breezy fall - where a T-shirt isn’t enough but a sweatshirt is too much.
It sucks no matter what the season is [:-^]
…But I wouldn’t want any other job.
One Class 1 I worked for was made up of three different predecessor roads. Each had a different flavor. At the first, the TY&E crafts were almost all hard workers, friendly, and would think ahead. At the second, they were average – some good, some bad. At the third, they were almost all bitter, angry, slow, and seemingly devoted to devising ways to botch the simplest job. The first had the least personal injuries, the third had the most. According to the old heads it had been this way for at least 50 years.
rWM
Does the senority system effectively “chain” an employee to an employer although that employer treats his people worst than the competition? Or is there so little difference between the practices of the major railroads that this is not a factor?
A related question might be does the Railroad Retirement system chain employees to the industry?
With today’s economy and the relatively common aspects of furloughs and job cuts, seniority is your best friend. As poor as it sounds to railfans, I’d be hesitant to hire out with a railroad just so they cut cut my job and leave me waiting to get hired back on. My spot on the seniority list means job security because I know I have people under me. They can’t really pick and choose who they cut, or just say “We’re cutting five jobs from this terminal” with the way our union contract is worded. If they do, I’ll bump someone from another terminal, or a junior employee in my terminal, and they take the cut.
Does railroad retirement chain people in? Oh hell yeah. I know guys that have 15 years in now, don’t necessarily “enjoy” their work, but continue to stay within the railroad industry because they’ve completed half the time they need to secure a full retirement. Seniority plays a big role in this aspect as well, because with the more seniority you have, you can work the jobs that YOU want.
" Does railroad retirement chain people in? Oh hell yeah. I know guys that have 15 years in now, don’t necessarily “enjoy” their work, but continue to stay within the railroad industry because they’ve completed half the time they need to secure a full retirement. Seniority plays a big role in this aspect as well, because with the more seniority you have, you can work the jobs that YOU want."
It almost sounds like joining the clergy of a major denomination a century ago; a lifetime hitch.
Not being familiar with railroad retirement, would it benefit the industry to change it so those wanting out could do so at a smaller penalty?
Yes…the biggest complaint I hear is that people who have tenure at their respective employers can’t quit without forfeiting their pensions… That should be fixed so that people who don’t like the direction in which things are going can make changes without putting their retirement on the line.
Futhermore, employees have little if any input into how those pension dollars are managed for maximum longterm return. These pensions should be eliminated and replaced with matching contributions into a retirement fund that is chosen by the employee and for which the employee takes responsibility …and over which the employee has control. That way people can leave if they want to…and those who elect to stay will feel less frustrated even if things aren’t going as they’d like.
So let me get this straight: if you leave the railroad after - say - 10 years, you forfeit the pension rights you’ve build up during those 10 years? Don’t they get transferred to your new employer - inside or outside the rail industry? Because if that is right, that would really shock me. That would basically amount to theft.
You need 120 months I think. Thats how it was when I was there.