OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific is holding back on its promises to make schedules more predictable for train crews to address the quality of life concerns that nearly caused a nationwide rail strike two years ago, according to the union that represents engineers.
The nation's largest railroad has told the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union that Union Pacific isn't getting enough work out of its engineers anymore under the new schedules and had to hire more workers than it planned, so the company wants to change the schedule improvement agreement it signed and touted last year.
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Where they have been implemented, the new schedules make it possible for engineers to attend doctor's appointments and keep important promises to show up for their kids' activities or family gatherings, union members say.
“It’s been a game changer,” said Mark Ganong, who has worked for Union Pacific in Texas for 22 years. “I think it’s improved my quality of life — well, I know it has. I think it’s improved my overall health, my attitude and my ability to schedule things.”
The railroad says it still plans to live up to the schedule agreement it signed, but CEO Jim Vena said Union Pacific needs to tweak the deal that forced it to hire additional engineers to cover the shifts of workers getting regular time off.
“The amount of work we’re getting — the starts per the 11 days that they’re available — is not anywhere near where both us or the union thought it was going to be,” Vena said. “So we’re just trying to figure out how we can fix or tweak it. But at the end of the day, we’ve committed to people. We signed an 11-and-four deal and we’ll live up to our commitments.”
The basic concept of the new schedule is that after engineers remain available to drive trains for 11 days in a row they get four days off in a row that they can plan on ahead of time. Within those 11 days, there has to be at least one break between shifts because federal rules require 24 hours off after engineers work four straight days, but it’s hard to predict where that time off will fall. The promised four days off are scheduled out for the entire year ahead.
This represents a dramatic shift for engineers who have essentially been on-call 24-7 for years, with only a couple hours notice before reporting to work. In recent years, they also got penalized for missing any time off under a strict points system.
Gaining paid sick days for the first time last year helped make the attendance system more manageable, but not being able to plan on their days off still takes a toll on engineers. Conductors, who belong to a separate union, face similar struggles, and still don’t have any kind of agreement in place to improve their schedules.
One of the initial changes the railroad is trying is that engineers who are coming back from their scheduled time off are now being put at the top of the list for the next train, but that has the consequence of bumping other engineers down and making their lives less predictable.
The BLET union went to court this summer to try to force Union Pacific to comply after it missed the deadline in the schedule agreement, but it hasn’t been able to resolve the dispute and get the new schedules for the roughly 60% of UP engineers who still lack it. They also want to make sure that engineers coming off rest go to the bottom of the call list.
Nathan Rouse said he finally missed so many birthdays, holidays, school events and other “things you can't get back” that he walked away from the railroad almost three years ago. Rouse said his daughter, now 13, had gotten used to him missing her dance recitals.
“She kind of grew so accustomed to me being gone. It was just kind of like she expected me gone more than home,” Rouse said. He still might have long days at the chemical plant where he works now, but at least he is home each night and knows when he will be off.
Engineer Travis Dye said he also nearly quit the railroad despite having worked for UP in Kansas City, Missouri for nearly two decades before he got the new schedule. He said it seemed like the railroad was finally addressing workers' concerns after the strike was averted, but now he worries that the issues aren't getting as much public attention.
“I think they feel like they can get away with it now because it’s not being talked about it anymore,” Dye said.