Working at UP?

I have always gone over this subject in my mind a thousand times, but I usally convince myself to stay where I'm at. I know two guys who work for the BNSF and one guy who worked on the NS. Both have different takes on it. The hobby industry doesn't pay much but it has its perks. I still would rather see my wife not having to work outside the home, and I still have that application half filled out for the Iowa Interstate RR.

 

When the Roseville Hub was implemented we were dove tailed into one big roster. But we kept our zone seniority for one zone and you fall ahead of the interlopers on pool jobs regardless of their seniority. Extra boards, locals and yard jobs fall into hub seniority. The trainmen had the zone for a while but that time expired and it's strictly hub seniority for brakemen, switchmen and conductors. I did ok in my zone but if I transfer to any other place I will have to use my hub seniority number and lose my zone seniority, forever. Good or bad, that's what happened here in the Roseville hub.

Greg

 

Does anyone know if smaller railroads like Iowa pay the same as UP or BNSF? Is there the opportunity to rack up overtime pay like there is with the big boys? </font>[/QUOTE]Depends if they are union represented to some extent. That would be a question to ask, and make sure you are paying into the Federal Railroad Retirement system especially if you plan on staying there a while. Some short lines have the union on the property but have non union wages. As far as overtime goes, that depends on the railroad and such.

Greg Elems

 

If you work for the railroad like the UP or BNSF consider it a 24/7 job. You will miss holidays with the family and be on call. UP is so short of people now is a good time to hire out. Take that with a grain of salt though. When I hired out in 1979 it was a good time too. 1981 rolled around and it became a bad time to work for the railroad industry. It took almost four years to get back with any regularity. Also remember that was a really bad recession and unless it happens again it probably won't be as rough again if you have any time in at all.

Greg

 

There are several things at play on the UP right now. They are trying to eliminate 25% of the operating department, i.e. conductors and engineers. The economy is in a downward spiral, like the housing market. We have freight cars stored all over the UP. The intermodal traffic is down, even with the price of diesel fuel being so high and sending truck traffic to the rails. UP is regularly running trains out of Roseville that are big enough to make to trains out of them. Doing that uses fewer crews and less trains are running. Some areas are in need of train service employees but they have a lot of furloughed trainmen who could borrow out to those areas. All things considered, it isn't a rosy picture for employment on the UP IMO. The only bright spot working out of Roseville is the detour traffic from the mud slide in Oregon but those employees are really hurting so nothing is really gained.

Greg