Union Pacific is preparing to curtail more shops across the systemin the next 24 months. The first will be DeSoto, Missouri. The company has been unable to close the Palestine, Texas shop due to “local government and judicial interference”. Company leadership does not expect the same interference in Missouri. Eric Geringer plans to reallocate the closed facilities into Contractor Shops where employees will have the right to organize and collective bargain
Eric Geringer plans to reallocate the DeSoto shop for repair of maintenance of way equipment.
Raccoon PTC it was going into effect the CEO testified before Congress:
Fritz: “ Railroads believe that the forthcoming implementation of positive train control (PTC) potentially presents an opportunity to move to one-person crews with no degradation of safety. PTC describes technologies designed to automatically stop a train before certain accidents caused by human error occur. As such, PTC advances rail safety through the use of advanced technology, while at the same time potentially eliminating the need for “a second set of eyes” in locomotive cabs. Neither Union Pacific nor other Class I railroads seek the ability to impose one-person crews unilaterally or haphazardly. Rather, we seek the flexibility to continue to work with rail labor under the existing collective bargaining framework to identify when the presence of PTC, or other technologies, allow a reduction in the number of crewmembers in a locomotive cab without jeopardizing rail safety.”