For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

[ChEwBaCcA]

Im down w/ ya on that Vic....... I never can stand to see CEO's and CFO's cut the workforce, lower peoples wages, cut their benefits ....and then the shareholders kiss their a$$ , stock goes up 20% and they cut themselves 3-4 million dollar bonus checks.

Something wrong w/ that....

Regards
Chewy

 

[VicXJnNC]

With this the catch is.... the stock price dropped, no dividend was paid but the nepotism and the "good buddy" system going unchecked on the board of directors rewarded the lunatic(s) running the asylum.

 

[Z22_Z33]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

yeah that stuff does suck. and their aint no one you can complain to, they are the ones in charge. Just as bad as Coke changing their product a long time ago, when i either wasnt around or couldnt remeber. Now really they would have to be on cocanie to even think thats a good idea.

Only problem about a mass transit system of any sort is, people dont want to spend the money for it. Who wants to see 2 bucks taken out of their check to build something, or paying extra in taxes which could be quite high in fact. Maybe the reason is becuase by the time it's built, it wont be usefull anymore, to much time has passed and all the money was wasted.
Yeah I've seen those construcion crews, one man shoveling dirt others standing around doing nothing.
Who's in charge of all these things? Is there some idiot test they had to take to see if they were really dumb enough!? i know if any of us were in charge things would be quite differnet, we'd all be for the workers not against them. and our sons and daughters would start at the bottom and have to work their way up, they wouldnt just be handed the company, thats were things all go wrong. Oh look their father is rich and he got this great ivy league education but hasnt worked a day in his life, he must be good for running our company.
(have I made any since here? it's one in the moring)

 

[Boatwrench]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

Dan,
Thanks for the Info. Today just got extended (again) by the military, but I have saved the links to the favorites to view when I get closer to my next release date. I DON'T want to return to the civilian job I left. The bosses were all well...you know....(hey i see a common theme here with other posts).

Hope to see you again in Moab...over an Alaskan Amber?

Tom

 

[scoobyxj]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

i have often thought it would be a good job to work for the railroad, but now you have me wondering. i have been serously considering a job change, because the conditions at my present employment is very unstable, but i havent looked very hard yet. its not that easy to just give up a 18$ an hour with 5&1/2 years in of relitively easy work for some piddly sh@# job. if you new more about the company i work for you would think 5&1/2 years is a long time in, to be worried about getting layed off. in the peroid of about 2 years i have gone to being one of the oldest senority employes in my department, to being one of the youngest in the plant. and thats with the companys that buy our product reporting higher that avirage sales. anyway that just my rant to add to the thread.

 

[TRNDRVR]

Oh but once again, this is still a good thread.
BTT
Dan.

 

[aspera]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

Hi. Neat thread.

Maybe I can add some flavor. :sunshine: I'm a locomotive engineer on the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) and work west out of Kansas City on the "Transcon". I hired out in '94 after I got out of the military.

First off, I DREAM of having an 8 hour job that works 5 days a week, especially a DAYLIGHT job. OMG! You guys are SO lucky and you don't even know it. You guys get a weekend EVERY week. That's like Christmas 52 times a year. Some of you think you are hardcore because you work nights or some overtime. HA! Double HA! :looney: You get to sleep in your own bed every night, too. I plan on doing that when I retire in about 2030. That's about the only thing I can plan.

Still, there are nice things about the railroad. No boss over your shoulder. Your "office" moves through the outdoors. Kids wave at you when you work. People take pictures. Guaranteed boards where you get paid for being on call, even if you don't perform service (sounds better than it is). Some jobs aren't very physically demanding.

Basically, a railroad job has good pay and bad hours...and the railroad will screw you out of pay and into more hours. The pay structure is Byzantine and the railroad will contest almost every pay claim. You will not get paid for all of your work. They habitually change the rules and renege on labor agreements...even the same ones that they just imposed on labor. Bad hours are due to the Supreme Court ruling that after a crews' Hours of Service is exceeded (12 hour limit on work), then there is 'limbo' time until the crew actually gets off of work. Limbo time is defined as: neither time on duty nor time off duty. That means that you can get stuck out in the middle of nowhere after 12 hours on duty AND STILL have several hours before you can get off of work.

Also, you are very much likely to hit a car or person. People still seem to want to "beat the train", especially if they are late for work in the morning.

Good news is that my job can't be exported and won't likely be outsourced. The railroad WILL try remote control operations, however. They already do in the yards all over the US. That means that large quantities of hazardous material in major metropolitan areas are only controlled by a radio signal. To top it off, the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) isn't doing its job of regulation and enforcement. It leaves that up to the railroads. They do what is best for profits, not public safety. You'll see the results on CNN one of these days.

Oh, and Amtrak does have the right of way. I've waited countless hours on them. Why? Ask the starter of this thread how much the railroads get fined when Amtrak gets delayed. You could buy a fleet of XJs with an hours' delay.

 

[aspera]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

P.S. I have an XJ at home and another for a roundhouse car.

I ALSO have a gutted '91 MR2 roundhouse car that just got some new stainless headers. I'm thinking about Tein coilovers eventually. My good car is a WRX. I'm just living on a different wavelength, I guess.

 

[gtdownhill]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

This seems like an amazing opportunity, if it weren't for the constant on-call status. From what I'm reading on UP's site, you're required to always be within 90 minutes of work when you're on call. If you're on call 24/7, this pretty much means you can't leave your city.

How do you guys deal with this? There are quite a few situations that come up in the course of daily life that require me to travel further than 90 minutes away from my job, aside from holidays and family vacations, things of that sort. It sounds like you're confined to a 90 minute travel radius of your jobsite, a virtual prisoner, from what I'm reading. Am I missing something here?

 

[TRNDRVR]

Hi. Neat thread.

Thanks!!!
I call it my "Public Service Announcement".
I personally don't work for the UP, it's just where I started my railroad career.
It's a good job to have if you allow it to be good. I do!!

Maybe I can add some flavor. :sunshine: I'm a locomotive engineer on the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) and work west out of Kansas City on the "Transcon". I hired out in '94 after I got out of the military.

First off, I DREAM of having an 8 hour job that works 5 days a week, especially a DAYLIGHT job. OMG! You guys are SO lucky and you don't even know it. You guys get a weekend EVERY week. That's like Christmas 52 times a year. Some of you think you are hardcore because you work nights or some overtime. HA! Double HA! :looney: You get to sleep in your own bed every night, too. I plan on doing that when I retire in about 2030. That's about the only thing I can plan.

Still, there are nice things about the railroad. No boss over your shoulder. Your "office" moves through the outdoors. Kids wave at you when you work. People take pictures. Guaranteed boards where you get paid for being on call, even if you don't perform service (sounds better than it is). Some jobs aren't very physically demanding.

Basically, a railroad job has good pay and bad hours...and the railroad will screw you out of pay and into more hours. The pay structure is Byzantine and the railroad will contest almost every pay claim. You will not get paid for all of your work. They habitually change the rules and renege on labor agreements...even the same ones that they just imposed on labor. Bad hours are due to the Supreme Court ruling that after a crews' Hours of Service is exceeded (12 hour limit on work), then there is 'limbo' time until the crew actually gets off of work. Limbo time is defined as: neither time on duty nor time off duty. That means that you can get stuck out in the middle of nowhere after 12 hours on duty AND STILL have several hours before you can get off of work.

Good news is that my job can't be exported and won't likely be outsourced. The railroad WILL try remote control operations, however. They already do in the yards all over the US. That means that large quantities of hazardous material in major metropolitan areas are only controlled by a radio signal. To top it off, the FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) isn't doing its job of regulation and enforcement. It leaves that up to the railroads. They do what is best for profits, not public safety. You'll see the results on CNN one of these days.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for your input. :thumbup:

On the other hand though, "Limbo" time sucks!!! If I'm still responsible for my train, I'm still on hours of service.

Also, you are very much likely to hit a car or person. People still seem to want to "beat the train", especially if they are late for work in the morning.

Only job I ever interviewed for that they asked,
Have I ever killed anybody?:shocked:
What was the situation?:dunno:
How did I react?:looney:

Oh, and Amtrak does have the right of way. I've waited countless hours on them. Why? Ask the starter of this thread how much the railroads get fined when Amtrak gets delayed. You could buy a fleet of XJs with an hours' delay.

:rattle: :soapbox:

aspera, I just wish that the UP treated us as good as the BNSF.

This seems like an amazing opportunity, if it weren't for the constant on-call status. From what I'm reading on UP's site, you're required to always be within 90 minutes of work when you're on call. If you're on call 24/7, this pretty much means you can't leave your city.

This is the case if you're on a rotating extra board. But the exception is this, if you're 10 times out with no vacancies, no, you do not have to be within 90 minutes of work. If you're first out and there is a vacancy lined up to be called in 30 minutes, you better be getting showered and ready for work.

How do you guys deal with this? There are quite a few situations that come up in the course of daily life that require me to travel further than 90 minutes away from my job, aside from holidays and family vacations, things of that sort. It sounds like you're confined to a 90 minute travel radius of your jobsite, a virtual prisoner, from what I'm reading. Am I missing something here?

You learn to adapt. It's hard to really explain .
The only thing I can say is to apply, hopefully get hired, and you'll learn the rest. Learn to play the game, and you'll figure out how to make it work for you. Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Dan.

 

[red91]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

I miss seeing the caboose...Tell whoever cut them out I said " Thanks bastards !" They were my favorite part...

 

[aspera]

I miss seeing the caboose...Tell whoever cut them out I said " Thanks bastards !" They were my favorite part...

Yeah. The caboose, and more importantly the jobs of the men who worked the caboose, were phased out years ago. I now work alongside a conductor whose job used to be in those cabooses. The fireman and both brakemen have been phased out. The railroads are planning on slimming it down to just one person in the near future. My opinion.

Where do you think all of that workload goes? The last man standing gets the remnants of the workload and responsibility once shared by 5 men. I'll let you guess if he gets paid 5X more.
:smsoap:

My nightmare scenario is Bush gets re-elected, railroads force unions to accept a 1 man crew, and I'll spend most of my life in a dirty, noisy locomotive cab by myself.

 

[aspera]

Thanks!!!

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for your input. :thumbup:

On the other hand though, "Limbo" time sucks!!! If I'm still responsible for my train, I'm still on hours of service.
Only job I ever interviewed for that they asked,
Have I ever killed anybody?:shocked:
What was the situation?:dunno:
How did I react?:looney:
:rattle: :soapbox:

aspera, I just wish that the UP treated us as good as the BNSF.

Well thanks. I agree that the first thing a new hire needs to do is talk to some "old heads" and get the real story. Railroads will just tell you what you want to hear, not the truth. Also, ask the railroad if you will be subject to "home terminal recall" or be subject to being "force assigned". It doesn't just matter when you hire out, but where.

Yes.
We hit a semi truck at 55mph. It exploded.
I reacted by putting out the fires and extinguishing the body. I'm lucky to still be here.

That brings up another point. I was the conductor on that trip. The engineer is being sued along with the railroad. :flamemad: They have NO case. NONE! But he still can't get a mortgage or anything until the lawsuit is settled.

 

[Lawn Cher']

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

I've always loved trains, and I hate my engineering job at Boeing. As a matter of fact, I'd love to do something that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer all day. But after reading this thread, I think I'll stick with HO scale!

 

[TRNDRVR]

My nightmare scenario is Bush gets re-elected, railroads force unions to accept a 1 man crew, and I'll spend most of my life in a dirty, noisy locomotive cab by myself.

My nightmare too. We need a president that supports subsidized public transportation. And that's not just Amtrak.

I already run by myself. If our runs are not expected to exceed 6 hours, we run single engineer in the headend. Longer than 6 hours, we run with 2 engineers in the headend. Our conductors are always in the rear of the train.

Dan.

 

[red91]

My nightmare scenario is Bush gets re-elected, railroads force unions to accept a 1 man crew, and I'll spend most of my life in a dirty, noisy locomotive cab by myself.

Could be worse you could get stuck with XJGUY in your cab.

 

[aspera]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

I've always loved trains, and I hate my engineering job at Boeing. As a matter of fact, I'd love to do something that didn't involve sitting in front of a computer all day. But after reading this thread, I think I'll stick with HO scale!

Yeah, you'd still be an engineer and sit in front of a computer screen (two actually)...but it would be completely different.

 

[aspera]

My nightmare too. We need a president that supports subsidized public transportation. And that's not just Amtrak.

I already run by myself. If our runs are not expected to exceed 6 hours, we run single engineer in the headend. Longer than 6 hours, we run with 2 engineers in the headend. Our conductors are always in the rear of the train.

Dan.

They do. They bail out the airlines, like after 9/11. The Conservatives attack Amtrak, yet spend taxpayers dollars on private airlines. The Conservatives sing the praises of pure capitalism without government involvement, while they take election contributions from corporations. Trucking companies make a living by shipping on public roads. Those roads are built using taxpayers' money. If the highways were built only for cars and light trucks they would be much cheaper. A bridge for vehicles less than 5 tons is mcuh cheaper and lower than one for semi trucks.

"Not expected to exceed"? :confused1 That sounds like an excuse to me. I hope that everyone who reads that understands that the lives of the passengers are in the hands of one person. A human...who can make a simple mistake or unexpectedly die. That's all it takes. Oh, and all it takes is a 99 cent knife to hijack the train. :doh:

Remember Spain? Trains are proven targets. My company policy prohibits the train crew from carrying weapons. Uhmmm...like weapons for self defense and stuff. Duh. Those same conservative-minded folk claim to support the 2nd Amendment. BS. I truly support the induvidual right to bear arms. They should issue me a .45 if they really were serious. They also claim to support the 1st Amendment, but I can get fired for saying the S-word on the radio. One of the guys at work was forced to see two shrinks before they'd let him go back to work for saying it. He passed the companies first shrink, so they sent him to another one.

Oh. That reminds me of another reason to vote Bush out. FCC gone wild. It ticks me off when I have to listen to censored songs on the radio. It will really tick me off when they censor cable. Oh yeah. Basic cable is next biitches.

 

[trailrunner]

Re: For those who are unemployed or in a deadend job, Union Pacific is hiring out West.

what kind of salerary does it pay?

 

[TRNDRVR]

what kind of salary does it pay?

Well if you apply and go to one of their hiring speeches, they'll say you'll make more money than you'll have time to spend. All I can say without being too specific, big bucks.