One thing I don't understand. Carman are one of the crafts if not the only craft that can bill for foreign work. (X cars- cars that end in x which the railroad doesn't own) All of this work has to be done by someone and is pure profit for the railroad. With 1.6 million cars on the nation's rails, a good percentage of that is foreign owned (not owned by a class one rr). My question then is this- why would you lay off a huge percentage of the craft that brings actual money in? Work is slow but there is 1000s of dollars that can legally be made with cars sitting on siding with expired air dates, shoes, defects. Why get rid of an employee that you have direct control over? Why co tract any of it out when its practically free labor? A good carman makes his wage back in a day by doing enough work for the billing to be over what he makes. You need them anyway why not use them. Another example of this is a shop pumping out 15 million dollars of billable work in a year with 15 guys but the rr decides to close the shop down. Doesn't make any sense at all. If it's not broken, don't fix it.
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Darnell ( KC shop supt?)
You are correct, BNSF is a transportation company.
But like all transportation companies, there are costs and overhead in doing business.
BNSF has tried to “out source “ the maintenance of its assets.
But that has never worked out.
Management has never given the time to properly service and repair its assets. It’s more important to put a bandage on it and place them back in service only for them to fail online.
It’s more important to make their “numbers”, keep shop counts down than to make repairs or to perform scheduled maintenance.
That is why they work so many Federal only inspections being performed.
If you want reliable assets , you need to properly maintain those assets instead of management signing off defects or running them until it fails next.
And allowing Nonskilled Labor to perform these tasks is the most id--tic decision management has made. This is what happens when you have non-railroaders running the place.
The Class 1 Where I work have been pushing Yard repairs for month's to recover some manpower costs in the yards. They ask all light repairs be done in the yard instead of sending to the light track, which also helps by not delaying cars. The problem is......alot of the Carmen are too lazy to do it. Not trying to be mean or harsh its just a fact. At my location anyway. We are our own worse enemy. We as a craft are not helping protect our jobs. How hard is it to apply some Hose hangers,shoes, a Cutlever here and there......
Because they view it as the carman cost the company 110-120k a year with benefits included, most shop work doesn’t cover the entire craft in the yard. They probably don’t make the profit they expect to make, so they feel they can part with the craft. Class 1 i work for call it a “recovery rate” and most yards are in the red when it comes to maintenance. So the first thing they do is store power then cut mechanical. Hump yards and maintainers come next. Its the PSR handbook.
"BNSF is not a maintenance and repair company. BNSF is a transportation company".
This year of furloughs is not about making money for the railroad as a business, it’s abundantly clear with the millions BNSF lost in lawsuits, failed contract negotiations for new business, yellow going bankrupt with BNSF holding the bag, and even with union negotiations…this years furloughs is about padding the pockets of the upper brass before BNSF is sold off or taken public through market offerings. What makes dollars in the points you’re making do not make sense to those utilizing their positions to line their pockets before the ship sails on BNSF. Warren is not going to live forever, and BNSF was Mungers baby before he died. Now this company like so many the oracle of Omaha has touched is just a shadow of what it was, and merely a last ditch attempt to get a few more dollars in the pocket of a dying billionaire at the expense of workers who generationally built it. Just look at General Electric and you’ll have a blueprint of what uncle warren is going to do to BNSF
Uprr layed off many Carmen too. Indeed it does not make $ sense.