Non-Agreement raises and bonuses were approved by the Board yesterday (2/3/2022). Basically 3%-4% raises and bonuses at the same level they were 2 years ago. That's an improvement over last year when the bonus pool was smaller and we also got hit with RULA. But when wages are rising everywhere, when Social Security is getting a 5.9% COLA increase, when UP stockholders just got a 10% raise in dividends, it's pretty lame.
I predict even more people leaving UP for greener pastures.
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I was furloughed in 2019 (my 2nd furlough for UP) and decided to finish up school and get my engineering degree. Now that I'm almost done, I view the managers in a different light than most here. I almost feel sorry for the managers working for UP because they are in a life that they cannot escape.
Prior to getting laid off, my aspirations were to become an LEMT. Some people chose that path, others chose to move up via the supervisory role as Foremen, FGs, and ultimately Manager. Most people want some path of upward mobility at work, it gave them something to strive for.
I met some managers who UP hired right out of college. Those were the lucky managers as they had marketable skills and training outside of the railroad (typically engineering type degrees). They never seemed to last long and when UP started ramming down the long hours, RULA, etc, all of the ones I knew got better paying jobs in the engineering field away from UP. That left the Foremen and FGs who were promoted into management. Sure, the lure of the dollar is strong and that is how UP got them hooked, but now they are trapped in a life that they cannot easily leave.
Imagine you are getting paid way more than what your skill set is, that is what most of these managers are facing. They have spent the majority of their working life at UP and have risen to the manager ranks. What skills do they have outside of UP? Do those skills they possess equate to the amount of money they currently make as a manager at UP? I guarantee a lot of them have thought of leaving but have realized that they would have to take a drastic pay cut to leave UP. With more and more companies requiring college degrees to be in management, the UP managers without degrees are stuck at UP. UP also knows this and that is how they keep a captive middle management team.
I'm not trying to sound like a "college degree snob" because to be honest with you, if UP didn't furlough me, I planned on retiring as a diesel electrician. I was very content with the pay and job as a diesel electrician. I was middle aged and had no want or desire to go back to school. Once I was laid off, however, I reassessed my life and realized that getting a degree was in the best interest for my future. Looking back at UP, I see some people who were foremen, went back to their craft, and are now very happy. I see others who followed the money and became managers and now are miserable. We all have choices in life and try to improve our situations. A lot of these managers tried to do that and are now stuck. As the old saying goes-Money can't buy you happiness.
Managers are useless and don’t deserve a raise or bonus check
None of these managers deserve a raise or bonus check they do nothing to get one..when they lie,cheat and steal and treat employees like sh-t they should never get anything but more hours and more work
I'm so very happy to hear this. My manager is finally getting the pay that he deserves. The little fella works way to hard not to get paid for it. Nothing like slithering your way up the Corporate Ladder!
WHOOOHOOO I'm going go cash my bonus check........oh wait I'm an agreement employee, I actually work. I do more than approve payroll and hours of service. Damn I forgot. Oh well gotta wait for overtime I guess.
The UP Board of Directors also just approved a new stock buy-back program to further benefit the shareholders!
The quarterly dividend was increased by 10% twice in 2021, so shareholders basically got a 20+% raise in 2021.
I'll bet the Board never once considered making employees whole on the RULA paycut we took. And remember, they structured RULA so that almost none of us could claim unemployment for those weeks.
The Heritage Fleet is on its way to the Super Bowl this week. I bet Lance et al are going to be celebrating their big win over us employees!
In 2020, the year we all got a pay cut (RULA), Lance Fritz got an 11% raise.
Have you EVER gotten an 11% raise at UP? Even when I was promoted, I didn't get an 11% raise.
How much raise and bonus do you think Lance and the other executives got this year? I'm pretty sure it was more than 3%-4% like most of us.
https://www.execpay.org/news/union-pacific-corp-2020-compensation-936
Inflation is 10%
The company put you in debt, we're all working for health insurance at this point.
All those hours put in. For what exactly? Just to be treated poorly by upper management and senior staff the rest of the year. I really thought with all the employees leaving they would want to give back to the people busting their as--s. You know the people who do everything while the Execs and VPs sit on conference calls and talk about how important and woke they are. Inflation is up and we had to cut your hours a couple years ago for rula, but here's a small token of how little we appreciate you. Oh we could make up for it since we've had record profits but nah. We are the RR, we once used slave labor. What do you fools expect. Oh and throw some bad health insurance on there. World class. Atleast Jeff Bezos went to outer space.
In Jennifer Hamann's words, "UP had its best financial year ever." Too bad that only benefits the stockholders.
And upper management still wonders why employees are disgruntled. Do they think we've forgotten RULA? Just keep taking away from employees and giving to stockholders, over and over and over. Most of upper management's compensation is stock, so they're just laughing at us, all the way to the bank.