Western Railroad Discussion > UP brings in new COO

Union Pacific +6.7% after bringing Vena out of retirement as COOJan. 7, 2019 5:22 PM ET|By: Jason Aycock, SA News Editor [/url]Union Pacific (NYSE:[url=https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/UNP]UNP) has risen 6.7% in postmarket trading on heavy volume after naming Jim Vena its chief operating officer, effective Jan. 14.The 60-year-old Vena -- a former protege of Hunter Harrison at Canadian National (NYSEARCA:CN) -- had retired in 2016 after 40 years with that railway.At CN, he led the best operating ratio in North American rail and achieved the best safety incident ratio in company history.He'll report to Union Pacific Chairman/President/CEO Lance Fritz.

Interesting development.

I wonder how many people will decide to put in their retirement papers, and decide to get out of the line of fire?

He's already been floating around the system on a tour of hump yards.

I wonder if and how this will effect the planned yard at Hearne,Texas? At what stage of developmenf is it currently?
Thanks










 

I cannot possibly imagine UP without hump yards.  Imagine the impact.  This will have my attention.

coach Wrote:
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> I cannot possibly imagine UP without hump yards.
>  Imagine the impact.  This will have my
> attention.

It's unlikely he'll mess with most of them, but it's very likely there will be some downgrading. . .

If he follows the footsteps of his protege and close a bunch of hump yards, ala CSX, then the STB will really be taking over the UP.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Well now, does that mean the UP's slow measured walk type PSR will speed up and that lots more UP people are working short time?  Just what the pot needed, something else to stir up unrest.

Those of us who've worked for large corporations have seen these sweeping idea oriented changes take over a
business in what seems like days. Wonder if the new G&W office in Grand Junction is hiring yet.

Out

rantoul Wrote:
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> Says a lot about UP's management depth, unless it
> is an inside move to merge UP-CN.

Maybe the managers aren't buying into PSR, so Lance Fritz is forcing it on them by bringing in Vena?

cchan006 Wrote:
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> rantoul Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Says a lot about UP's management depth, unless
> it
> > is an inside move to merge UP-CN.
>
> Maybe the managers aren't buying into PSR, so
> Lance Fritz is forcing it on them by bringing in
> Vena?

Changing corporate culture in a large, established firm is very difficult.

Posted from Android

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> cchan006 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > rantoul Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Says a lot about UP's management depth,
> unless
> > it
> > > is an inside move to merge UP-CN.
> >
> > Maybe the managers aren't buying into PSR, so
> > Lance Fritz is forcing it on them by bringing
> in
> > Vena?
>
> Changing corporate culture in a large, established
> firm is very difficult.
>
> Posted from Android

From what I've heard "out in the field", UP field managers are not happy at all any ways.   Over the past couple years, UP has demoted them, cut their pay, cut them off from their Harriman Pension benefits (not sure if that is true or not), etc.  There was a thread on here about a year or so ago talking about that.  It wouldn't surprise me a bit if UP's field managers could "care less".

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,4396106,4396233#msg-4396233


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/19 17:59 by spwolfmtn.

Incorrect.

The Harriman continues for all non-agreement employees. New employees or those who take promotion are in a 401k system that I hear is contributed to decently.

Those who leave and then reenter non-agreement positions go into the 401k. If your vested, your vested.

UP introduced a new salary schedule as well. If you were making less than what it called for, you got bumped up. If you made more, you kept it.

Merit increases are still available.

No one was demoted per se, but management and non-agreement salaried ranks were pretty thick.

Those who didn’t make the cut for upper field management with the consolidation were offered positions a step below as nessesary. Some left the company, some took lateral positions, some lesser ones.

Many companies still use span of control (number of people under you) and size of budget as a basis for pay at manager levels. Even though there will be unique criteria for each job, these are pretty common. Nobody wants to give up budget or people.

Getting to cooperative, results based organizations is incredibly wrenching.

Posted from Android