That’s why you got people telling people to eat cookies and drinks coffee to relax and think that’s good advice that will help anyone. Lay off 90% of them and most of the executives and hire more actual railroad workers to move freight, work on engines, and fix cars. The end.
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SP CLASS OF 1995 RULES AND IS A LOT BETTER THAN THE UP SCHMUCKS.
WE ARE THE RGI /SP GUYS OF 1995 LA SAN JOAQUIN DIVISION FOR LIFE!!
Let me correct your statement OP. 99% of UP managers are clueless. Have a safe day!!!!!
@ilu I dont have your 35yrs of experience, I only have 20. I did make a broad statement, but the only time I have witnessed a manager do the right thing was around San Antonio, he kept requesting parts for crossings, he kept getting the run around. He ordered over a 100K needed for parts and then immediately resigned from UP. I blame the managers who dont take things OOS and manipulate the paper work to keep their directors happy. Then those same managers hold the agreement employees to the fullest extent of all rules & policies. They shouldnt be hypocritically selective of when they are going to follow laws & rules depending entirely on WHO the laws and rules are be applied to. The managers & directors who abusively threaten the agreement employees in trying to get them to break the HOS, their work contract, or pencil whip what they should be doing today just this time so they can go fix something else that is a delaying trains. Just bcuz this kind of stuff has always happened (it happens more often post PSR) does not mean it should be tolerated or ignored.
Remember a few years back when they were paying hiring bonuses for Conductors.
How do you know no managers say anything? My manager complains quite a bit to his director about staffing, maintenance, etc. I know this because I have witnessed it. Lower level employees cannot fix issues like hiring and large capital expenses, those have to be approved by the execs. This has been going on forever, it’s nothing new. I have worked here for over 35 years and the complaints are the same now as they were in 1987. Railroads have always tried to work with the minimum amount of employees, especially train crew. We are always short staffed. This is and always has been the reality of working for a railroad company. Read the other railroad layoff sites, they all have the same issues and complaints as we do.
This is interesting to watch. I wonder how UP will face the future. For all the problems listed on this site to be properly fixed it would take the board of directors to be “motivated” to tell the exec’s to identify the problems, formulate a fix it plan, and the board would have to agree to the cost. For SO long now the can has been kicked down the road, the pile of sh!t swept under a rug, and no managers say anything. Our “maintenance” is mostly just band aids on top of ugly wounds. This has all gotten much worse since PSR. UP needs to hire so many more people and buy so much new equip and replace / renew a LOT of stuff. No dept or employee can rise above being “useless” if they arent free to identify problems to their supervisor and the supervisor tell em “order what you need, hire the people needed, and get the project done”. Versus just patching the locomotive well enough so it’ll depart and be someone elses problem, just adjusting the track so the next train wont derail on it, or finding someone not wearing ear plugs instead of figuring out a way to deliver freight quicker. Not every season is harvest, need to clear the land, plant & fertilize, grow the crop, THEN harvest.