CSX selkirk NF dispacher is having his hands full. Train crews are tring to get off the Rive line heading westbound and their is 5 trains waiting to head west. On the Chicago maine line. Their are 3 TV train tring to head westbound, and 3 intermoble heading westbound, 4 ML train heading westbound, 2 selkirk(former SEEL) heading westbound. To add more pain to the dispacher 2-4 amtrak trains are tring to heading westbound. He is really in a pickle right now.
Well, I don’t blame 'em. On Christmas, home is where you want to be.
Problem is, there’s this railroad to run. I think that if management and the brotherhoods sat down and talked in good faith, this too could be worked out. Yes, I know, a cow will jump over the moon first.
Who’s willing to work Christmas and who isn’t? Let the people willing to work take the trains regardless of who is next for the call. Got enough crews? If you don’t have enough people then up the pay for working and being away from home on Christmas.
Some people wouldn’t spend Christmas away from home for all the money in the world. Some people will take the cash and run the trains. It’s certainly a better idea than trying to force people to spend Christmas away from home and family. Especially when there are other people who would be willing to work if they got good pay for it.
The class I’s usually slow down for one of the big holidays and only run the priority trains. Employees who have a lot of senority can usually (?) mark off on a big holiday. This year Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday which is usually a slower day for the Class I’s anyway.
CC
I’m not trying to be callous, but aren’t railroad employees told when they are hired on that they are expected to be ready to work 365 days a year? It just kinda seems that if someone didn’t want to fulfill the requirements of the job, then perhaps they should have found a different job.
Along slightly different lines, I would think that those of non-Christian faith (Buddhist, Muslim, Jew, animist, atheist, etc.) would have no problem with working on Christmas. Is the percentage of such workers rather small within the railroad industry?
Back when the railroads ran their own psgr trains everyone knew someone was going to have to work during the Christmas holidays. So if your crew stood to go out, everyone pretty well accepted it. If you had enough senioroty you could mark off that trip. If you were on the extra board it was the same as any other day.
Today there are few working railroaders left from that era. Today’s mind set is “Why should I have to work? I’ll just lay off sick and let crew management force some one else to go out who didn’t stand to work on Christmas (or any other holiday).” Usually nothing happens to the first person who laid off sick, but the railroad will do all sorts of nasty stuff to the person who didn’t stand to work if he then tries to lay off.
We’ve been planning this for more then a week. CSX is planning (at least in my area) to have everything tied down and everyone at their home terminal by late Sunday night. We expect to start running again late Monday night.
I have worked plenty of Christmases, and other holidays in my career. Usually voluntarily too. The double time and a half makes up for it (don’t have kids yet). Both my father and grandfather were railroaders, so my side of the family is used to it. My wife is still always a little dissappointed (until she sees that paycheck [8D])
As noted, in my RR greetings post, I’ll be the last man on duty this year (3rd shift the 24th).
Nick
I heard CN is trying to have people home around 6pm Christmas Eve. Well that certainly must not be true because I have been told my 2pm-10pm yard shift on Christmas Eve isnt cancelled and I think I am working on C-Day too. I will know for ceratain when I go to work today.
But I know for sure they are not shutting down totally.
well… imho… the word “holiday” shouldn’t even be tossed around as workers on our main line have none. only the yard guys and mgmnt get holidays. so when i hear pissing and moaning about guys laying off sick for the holidays, well that doesn’t apply. you might be forgetting about all the times we get turn arounds at our home terminal right on our rest during the rest of the year. i can assure you my family doesn’t forget it. or when i am stuck out in clinton for 2-3 days dog-catching trains and miss my daughter’s birthday or graduation. or how about the poor saps that are stuck out in clinton tomorrow? the only place to go to shop for food and whatnot is wal-mart and they are closed. do you think the u.p. would come out and set up a buffet or even order pizzas for the guys that make the sacrifice? hell no! what do we get for working on these so-called “holidays”? i tell you what i got on fathers day when i could have (and should have) been with my wife and kids, a stop test at the bottom of a hill pulling about 9000 feet of manifest train. and when the manager got up on the units i asked him why they arent making a list of guys that lay off around the “holidays” and doing stop tests on them when they do work? he said it wouldn’t be “practical” and would be a “headache” for the company. so instaed us poor slobs that do show up get ftx’d and risk a level so some eager young manager can make his bones. and it is human nature to want to be home for the holidays. have i worked christmas? plenty. new years? of course. my kids birthday and communion and 1st day of school and graduation and proms and baseball games and all manner of things? of course i have. so if i layoff for xmas (which i just did) cut me some slack. by the way the right to layoff is in our contract. no one put a gun to the companys head to sign that deal. but they did so it is in there a
I’d like to break into this thread of complaining about having to work and/or be away from family on a holiday to offer some perspective:
- There are a lot of unemployed people with families to feed who’d love to have a good-paying job with benefits working for a railroad and wouldn’t care one whit if they had to work third shift or a holiday for double time – or even straight pay.
- There are a couple of hundred thousand service men and women at military installations all over the globe – many of them in harm’s way today – protecting our right to complain. Many of them are 10,000 miles and months away from being with their family members this Christmas. Some will never come home.
- There are a lot of police, fire, rescue and emergency medical personnel on duty every minute of a holiday. When I worked as a fulltime fireman, we got nothing extra for working holidays. We were all glad we had a decent, steady job. When I later was a volunteer [without pay], we answered calls 24/7/365 – even on holidays – because we were damn proud of what we were doing. In doing so we often ran out in the middle of family gatherings.
- Hospitals – doctors, nurses and support staff – will also be working through the holidays, just in case we need them.
- Let’s not forget highway crews who will clean up accident sites, assist motorists and plow snow even though it’s a holiday.
- And with no intent to slight anyone – thanks to EVERYONE who keeps our country going during holidays.
Keep all these folks in mind as you celebrate with your own loved ones over the next few days.&
Some perspective if I may. There are thousands of people overseas (some in harms way) that want to be “home”, or “Back in the World” but will not be as they freely chose to stand up for you and me and millions of other people. They do not make anything like what even nubie railroaders get paid, and they are taking a very big risk, just doing what they must do to survive in hostile lands. Bless them all!
The biggest determinant of all the layoffs during holidays is the relationsip between divisional management and local union leadership. When there is an agressive adverserial relationship between the two facations there is no trust that managment will actually do what it is promising to do in shutting down operations in an orderly manner. When the BLE/UTU implement their ‘shut down’ plan by not responding to call it brings forth crisis managment by management that further aggrevates those few employees that do accept calls.
The reality is that no one…craft or management want to be working during the Holidays, however, that is the profession that we have chosen…providing transportation for hire. If my memory serves, my dad was home Christmas Day 3 times from my birth until I was 10…and he was managment.
The Holidays are a difficult time that need to be handled in a professional manner by all…craft and management…it is our livelyhood.
Amen to you Poppa_Z. I have missed many a holiday in foriegn countries during the holidays and know the true meaning of sacarfice. I will never forget the communities, USO, school children, church groups, college Frat/Soriety houses sending us letters and packages during those times.
I want to send my thanks to the men and women that have to be on the rail or road delivering the packages to their final destination for the families that are waiting for them.
your argument would hold water if… we got holidays. we dont. as road crews we agreed to a contract without them. as did the company. how anyone can say that employees are laying off for the holiday is beyond me. are we laying off the occasional year for xmas? you bet. it is in our contract. the very contract those people over in iraq are helping us aquire. we are marked up 24-7. every day and every hour. if you get called on your rest thats it… you go. no one seems to have an opinion when i stay marked up thru marchaprilmayjuneaugust. but let xmas roll around and the holier than thoughs get on their soapboxes. the reality is that a fireman or a soldier or anyone wants to be home. thats us. were human. we value our family ties. we make sacrifices the year round. all of us do, not just trainmen. so lighten up on the layoffs. the railroad seems to do allright the rest of the year. and like i said in my previous post… if they gave a dash they would possibly arrange some pizzas or a submarine sandwich for the guys out in clinton and points beyond this holiday. did you get a bonus this year? i didnt. did you get a cost of living raise? i did. 1 penny an hour. thats the gods honest truth. and part of the reason these chronic layoff-ers dont care. they see the company as a non-caring profit raking non-entity. and in some cases they arent far off. god bless and merry xmas
Thank God I went Railfanning today. I tell you. Oh man was the BNSF busy today.
I am protecting my job and am paid to be available according to my agreement. I get plenty of time off when not called or working a yard job.
UP was also very busy. Of course will be running tomorrow as well. It used to be they would shut down on Holidays, but with so much needed traffic such as coal and Ethanol, the trains must move. We have grain and ethanol moving on the branch this holiday.
No kidding? WOW.
Ha.I got home earlier than ever this year.I took a call last night for a 234 pigtrain out of Potsmouth,Ohio.That train usually runs in the Bluefield I.D. pool with a Bluefield crew.But there wasn’t a Bluefield crew there to take it.When I got to work they already knew that there wasn’t any crews in Williamson to take it to Bluefield,from Willaimson so they asked if I would go on a makeup I.D. job to Bluefield,understanding I would taxi upon arrivial.My conductor and I said yes,and off to Bluefield we go.BUt they had us swap out with a Bluefield crew at Delorme,Wva (about 18 miles east of Williamson,WVa),and we took their train the 185,and they took ours.So, the NS this year was in the Christmas spirit of getting everyone home early for the holidays.Or…,they just knew nobody would be marked up anyway. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL !
Oh my. I haven’t heard not one UP Train in hours. Thank God I went Railfanning yesterday.
Correction! One coming through town now. I just turned on my Scanner and the Dispatcher just said he had a Track inspector out on the Rails. So the UP is still running Trains.