It would be nice if there was a railroad company that really values its employees. Does anyone know if such a company exists?
In the ones that I have worked at so far, for an ordinary worker it is more or less the same as it is here. I don't think UP is much worse than others and that's the only reason I'm still here. Unfortunately, for a real change you need to get out of railroading, that’s just my opinion.
I hear most of the smaller railroads take better care of employees. The pay is less and they know they have to to keep running. The smaller the company the closer the management is to what makes money and they understand that. Uprr will never improve. You just have to compartmentalize your job. Come down for a shift and then go home. Quit and go somewhere else when it no longer works for you.
I worked for NS prior to working for UP and it was much worse there for discipline. NS is very harsh with their policies and will fire employees quicker than UP. I don’t know about the other railroads as I have only worked for two. I could not recommend a railroad career for anyone, with any company.
I work in signal, I know and talk w/ the signal guys over at BNSF (including their manager). When we "swap war stories" all of the BNSF guys openly admit they're very glad they don't work at UP. I'd say the BNSF sounds like UP used to be 10-ish or more years ago.
I have heard from a few ex UP managers good things after UP let em go (1 of em quit) and they went to small metro lines in bigger cities. Also have an ex-coworker (agreement) who went to the G&W. He loves it, says being furloughed from UP was a blessing. But he also had to move several states over for that job.