FRA communication is circulating that multiple UP managers from mechanical and operating crafts asked FRA inspectors to halt an inspection on UP rolling stock and to vacate UP property. I never knew that was an option? Historically has anything of this magnitude ever happened before?
30 replies (most recent on top)
Organize or continue to be exploited. What’s it gonna take people ?
Ok what happens when you get ordered back to work and you don't go back because of your "will power"? The short answer is that the company could assume you vacated your position and order you from company property, or have you arrested for trespassing if you don't. Is that the "will power" you're talking about? The other person was right about this board being about current events at the RR's, and has nothing to do with 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The amount of issues surrounding the family currently occupying it is very troubling on many levels, but it's not the site to be having that discussion. Either way, the president didn't lay people off. The CEO did!
@2sso The short answer is that the strike would last as long as the willpower of the people doing the striking.
I’m sorry, but the people appointed to agencies like the NLRB and FRA have a direct effect on your job, so it kinda matters who is in the White House.
It was (not incorrectly) pointed out at the height of the PSR layoffs that PSR was a hedge-fund strategy. I assume you were upset about that. Want to take a guess at who deregulated private equity in 2018? How about the pro-capital DoT/DoL Secretaries and the chronic understaffing at the FRA during the same period?
Compare that to the current DoT/DoL/NLRB that are pro-worker, pro-union, enforcing fines for safety violations (OSHA), and prosecuting wage-theft by employers.
How long do you think that strike would last? What do you really think would be achieved during that strike? The answers to both of those would be very short and nothing. Personally, I don't give a damn who's in the white house and really this isnt the site for that typeof discussion. I did however like it when I was paying around $2 for a gallon of gas and not the $4.50 I'm paying now. I also liked it when I could spend $100 on groceries and walk out with a few bags, instead of the 1 or 2 that I walk out with now. Just remember that the "guy" that lost in 2020, has been out of there for almost 3 years. So it's about time to stop blaming him, don't you think? Things haven't exactly been very good in the last 3 years at the railroads, in case you forgot a few details. You obviously want to have political hate debate with someone, so good luck on your quest somewhere else to have that. This board is for railroad layoffs, which has NOTHING to do with the white house. You can go spew your political BS on another board.
I hope the FRA hits Proviso next.
So much for class solidarity and the power of unions.
You’d think any union worth the dues paid to it would strike for safer conditions, especially railroad unions, who have a long (and noble) history of taking on capital - and winning.
Meanwhile, warehouse workers and baristas are successfully organizing and winning battles every day for better working conditions and wages, with the help of a pro-labor NLRB.
If you’re all mad about this, you should be. Now grow a pair and strike for better conditions. Do it while Biden’s appointees are still in charge of the agencies, because if the guy who lost in 2020 gets back in there, the ghouls he puts in charge will pulverize the few rights and protections workers have left and have won since.
Why fix the cars behind them.. No one cares out here anyway.
“The FRA this and that” 😂😂😂! What’s wrong cry babies, you didn’t get your wish? Always talking sh#* about managers, then step up and make the changes you wish to see.
North Platte is a big yard. I really don't believe that this is the only time this happened, and I seriously doubt that every visit from an inspector is met with open arms from local management there. Why would the local management ask the inspector to inspect a different yard than the one there already in? Asking a federal inspector to inspect something else away from what they're already inspecting is a bit on the deceptive side. No manager has any right to ask an inspector to do their job somewhere else. The inspector knows what their job is, and has the right to inspect anything they want at any time! If the validity of the article was questionable, then why didn't the UP release a statement claiming it was false? Either way the story is out there and the UP has to defend yet another bad decision made by its management team. The manager involved should've kept their mouth shut and let the inspector do their job, instead opening it and create a news article that made the UP look even worse.
@qaq That’s illegal AF. If you saw that, and other people saw it, report it.
I'm a carman in North Platte, not defending any of the management actions or staffing conditions, but from what the FRA said while here is completely different than what was stated in this letter. We have repairmen follow the FRA inspectors down the trains and fix all defects at that time. At least one of the trains they went around hadn't even had an outbound carman inspection yet. They didn't try to kick the FRA out of the "yard" either, North Platte has seven different inspection yards in one, 2 outbound, 2 inbound, 2 run-through and a van yard. They asked if the FRA could inspect a different yard instead of multiple trains in just east departure, which has the least number of rails. East departure only has 6 rails and sees anywhere from 12-20 trains a day by itself.
FRA needs to do a major safety blitz on West Colton, Gemco, and Dolores, ICTF and the docks of PHL and inspect and bad ordered everything and anything.
Dubois and Buttigeg are coming together in full force.
Expect delays
The managers that kick FRA out of the yards should be fired they are just puppets to the higher up’s!! I like how managers say “This is MY yard!” Id--ts let me tell you all you spineless non union managers none of you own any yards it’s the UP yards!! But the BA--S will soon be real little when FRA keeps hammering you clowns (managers)!!
Who told the UP spokesperson that there are enough employees to do all the necessary work safely? One manager clearly stated they did not get to prior noted defects “yet”. If defects are not repaired on site or the next day then right there, you do NOT have enough headcount.
North Platte is skating on thin ice with that ignorant move they made with the FRA. Who ever made that call to kick out the FRA just put their job and everyone else’s job on the line in North Platte. FRA can shut you down completely for safety. They can have all the federal agencies do a blitz on your yard and really have you begging for mercy. Talk about complete willful negligence for safety.
Feds are way above those UP managers. Keep hammering them !!
I remember the cover up when the FRA shut Neff down October 6th 2019. (It was all part of the psr plan.)
I remember back in the early 2000 mr. Givens was a new manager at north platte when a fra inspector showed up and he told him to get off property. He did leave that night but returned the next morning with a bunch of his buddies and pretty much shut us down. That's how it used to be.
Everyone furloughed and fired employee needs to spend some time communicating with state and local governments about train lengths and lack of mechanical inspections which puts every community at a greater risk.
This is what happens when execs like JV demand pie-in-the-sky numbers that have no basis in the reality of what human beings and mechanical equipment are capable of. Managers do what they feel they must in order to keep their jobs. Anybody who has railroaded for a while has seen it. Repairs will be canceled or deferred because says that 'X' needs to happen in 'Y' amount of time because that will make the numbers look good for financial analysts in the quarterly report and then that exec gets their bonus. Then they act surprised when people get ki-led or injured, trains derail, and locomotives blow up engines.
Brothers/sisters trust in the lord
The last I checked they were called the FEDERAL RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION. I don't remember them ever being called the FRIENDLY RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION. The UP law department is going to have their hands full for awhile. The other issue is that it's happening all over the system, and not just at the UP either. Scores of people have been complaining or losing their jobs because of the management at these places for years. The FRA shows up at a location, and then asked to leave by a manager? Smart thinking on management's part! The genie is out of the bottle now.
I love when UP preaches “safety” and “ethics” 😂
Can never understand why Omaha allows managers in these yards to tell FRA what they are going to do who does these losers think they are ? Dishonesty used to get you fired!!
I hope they keep hammering all these UP yards managers think they can do whatever they want they should be getting fined personally for their stupidity letting all these defects go out on the mainline!!
Fra goes where they want to for Signal inspections, crossing gates, etc Up management doesn’t get a choice where .
How many times I saw our shop director or senior manager take FRA inspector for a good lunch, just to get a waiver on what he found.
FRA is told to stay out of places.. Herington being one of them
Ope, now I may have inadvertently lied in that first reply. Further down in the article it does mention that UP requested they leave
This article doesn't necessarily answer a question you posed but it does show why UP may have asked them to leave...
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/fra-union-pacifics-rolling-stock-inspection-practices-pose-a-safety-risk/