Makes no sense. Heard they were hiring more carman in De Soto just to work a couple extra cars a day. Managers are a joke and get ran over all the time. Every time a big wig comes in they would tell us to make noise and look busy. Heard they got rid of or scared off the few managers that were good. Anyone who works there knows that place could stand to lay off on the management side and freight car side. Upper management clearly has been fooled about this place to think they need to hire. Wow! But everyone on the maintenance way side of things gets cut. Wake up upper management and take your blinders off! It’s a shame the ones keeping the railroad running gets cut but the place that’s like a black hole money pit, workihg 2-3 hours a day getting paid for 10 doesn’t get touched. Sounds like good ol Givens has the wool pulled over Venas eyes.
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Ha! Told all you fools. De Soto was golden and the rest of the system would be the ones getting cut!
A lot of truth in these comments. I see it every day. The front office rarely comes out to visit with anyone or keep everyone informed on anything. I won’t blast everything on here but our director is shady and there’s a lot of covering up that goes on. If Omaha only knew!
Omaha doesn’t care about us here in De Soto. I’ve been here for over 15 years and they aren’t going to lay anyone off here not at the big of a layoff. Been hearing this for years!. I agree with the comments. We are fat on the car and management side though. Unless someone opens up a contract shop at a decent size then UP cannot afford to do anything with us.
To the guy saying if they don’t replace the car numbers drop, WOW! If management done their job and made people work, then car numbers wouldn’t drop, productivity rate needs to increase is the problem there! You must be one of those managers trying to keep a job at the desk or make sure they don’t lay off to the point you cant go back to your craft! Cut 25-30% and don’t replace anyone for 12 months. Tell the management team to figure out to get the same cars out or it’ll shut down and watch. I bet the same number cars would get out then. Cut 50% of your management team and the same work would still get completed. All of the productivity needs measured there from the bottom up and then clean it up! Maybe Jeremy Givens needs swapped for someone who will dig into it.
To the person saying they do cars for 30k. They’re still a lot of fat there. They could cut 25-30% of the car craft there and still put the same amount of cars out. Imagine the cost per car then, LOW! Cut 50% of their management and still get the same productivity. Management needs to do their job and quit lying to upper management to keep jobs there, their motto is fake it til you make it. Their job is to run the business efficiently and cut cost when necessary, not just sit in an office and collect a check! I’m blown away they would even consider hiring there!
Senior Management there is clueless too. Never see them out and they don’t build relationships with the floor guys
Desoto is doomed anyway. They don’t move freight or drive trains. They are a cost, not a profit. Negotiations are happening as we speak to have contract shops do the work. They are just telling employees they are “safe” from Vena to try to keep morale up. Once a deal is finalized Desoto will close.
That’s because Desoto is the best heavy repair shop in the nation and the up knows there’s gonna be lots of derailments going forward, therefore someone’s gotta fix all those mangled up cars. 25-40k to fix or 120k to replace. Only makes sense to me. Desoto went from 400 carman in 2014 to around 130 carman now, all the while kicking out nearly the same amount of cars as in 2014. They have averaged 10 or so retirees per year the last few years along with 2-3 a year quitting, so they either replace them with new hires or the number of car releases drops, period.
Lmao. If you only knew the billing a RIP track makes. They are only concerned about dwell time on the cars now. It’s not a black hole but they would definitely scab out all shop work if they could.
Just because they said they are hiring, doesn’t mean they will. Nothing is posted, so don’t believe it until you see it. The shop director is clueless there and will say anything to people just to keep them productive. He’s been there a year now and has never had a business meeting to inform employees of the status of anything. Can’t make a decision for anything either.