Hiring jumps at largest railroads Reduced age of retirement opens up jobs Tuesday, June 11, 2002 Steeped in his father's serial gripes about the hardships of working on the railroad, Robert McRee had no intention of following in his footsteps. But now McRee is training for a job at Norfolk Southern, the same railroad from which his father, 59, plans to retire in a few months. At Norfolk Southern's national training center in McDonough, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, the younger McRee is learning how to repair and install the signal systems the railroad uses along its 21,500 miles of tracks. He's part of a rising stream of 1,100 new hires --- almost 40 percent more than last year --- expected to flow through the center this year. After years of job-cutting and consolidation, hiring at the nation's biggest railroads has jumped, partly because they expect the reviving economy to boost cargo shipments. The biggest reason, however, is the need to replace retirees after President Bush signed a law late last year that liberalized the federal rail pension system. The new law dropped the retirement age for railroad workers with at least 30 years' service from 62 to 60. Through April, more than 6,000 railroad workers have applied for pensions nationwide, compared with 6,165 for all of last year, said Jim Metlicka, a spokesman for the Railroad Retirement Board. Training classes will be bigger for years to come because "we are a graying industry," said Tom White, spokesman for the Association of American Railroads. Over half of railroad workers are 45 or older, compared with one-third of all U.S. workers, he said. McRee expects to start at $16.91 an hour after he finishes the eight-week course, and eventually make about $19 an hour. It's more than he made in previous jobs, with better benefits. "We're training in crafts we haven't trained in years," said William Faulhaber, manager of the 18-acre complex. It includes five brown brick and metal buildings backed up to several tracks. Two 135-ton locomotives and 17 freight cars are parked on them. Students come from several states, drawn by jobs that in many cases don't require college degrees. Train engineers earn around $60,000 a year on average, according to Norfolk Southern.
ConductorRick, So what's your connection to the story? Are you a member of the NS team, or just teasing everyone else with job offers Harold
if anyone is interested in moving to decatur,il. they are going to be hiring approx. 20 conductor trainees. yeah we get to break out the crayons and draw pictures again on how to switch a car out.
Awww come on MOPAC, just think of what you'll do with the extra couple of bucks a day for having a trainee.
A reminder to all members that posting a newspaper story without giving credit to the source is illegal. Usually it is best to post a link to the story. The case with the above post is that it is copyrighted (I'm sure) and we have no idea where it came from. Charlie
