Western Railroad Discussion > Rail labor has the STB's ear

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/federal-regulators-welcome-input-from-rank-and-file-railroad-workers-amid-widespread-service-problems/

Good writeup from Bill Stephens at TrainsMag. It's good to hear that the STB is welcoming the unprecedented input from the rank and file employees, who I hope will continue to submit letters to the STB. It seems to carry more weight than the testimony of union officials, or at least serves to validate and emphasize the official union position with personal, real-life experiences.

But it's not good to learn that Mike's entire letter has been scrubbed from the STB website because he included a full scan of a train consist. Sorry, there ain't anything all that confidential or senstitive about a train consist, at least from the perspective of the shippers and consignees. I doubt that any of them complained to the STB and demanded the train consist with their names associated with cars be scrubbed. Especially those whose cars had been misrouted. No, the only confidentiality involved was that of revealing UP's mismanagement with hard evidence.

I also have experience with using UP's website to pull up partial consist data on their website, using access that any registered UP customer has. Granted, that was 15 years ago and perhaps that functionality has since been scrubbed.

The Pendulum sure has swung the other way from where the railroads were in the 1970's. No longer are the railroads going bankrupt with operating ratios in the high 90's. Now they enjoy operating ratios that are ridiculously low turning away profitable traffic that isn't profitable enough, shirking common carrier duties and giving away money that should be used to make yards and sidings more compatible with longer trains. The Unions are generally powerless over the railroads where they used to hold sway, and the responsibilities and stresses upon what little is left of the work force is ten fold of what it used to be. The situation that brought about the Staggers Act has been completely reversed, and the arrogance of the class 1 railroad management is creating a united coalition of shippers, employees and government entities that will be forced to rectify the situation.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Copying your local Congress person on your documented experience may be helpful, too.

Even the most anti-labor rep wants to keep local shippers happy.

Posted from Android

Yeah the STB says they "welcome" input from labor. They've have always said that. The question is are they actually listening this time?

PHall Wrote:
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> Yeah the STB says they "welcome" input from labor.
> They've have always said that. The question is are
> they actually listening this time?

In the BN Seattle dispatchers office, we labeled a trash can "employee input."

TAW

TAW Wrote: > ... we labeled a trash can "employee input." 

And here I thought you were gonna say 'toilet'...

:^)

santafe199 Wrote:
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> TAW Wrote: > ... we labeled a trash can
> "employee input." 
>
> And here I thought you were gonna say 'toilet'...
>
> :^)

No, that's called to office.

The suggestion box in my terminal is something like this...
 

---

santafe199 Wrote:
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> TAW Wrote: > ... we labeled a trash can
> "employee input." 
>
> And here I thought you were gonna say 'toilet'...
>

nah! MAnagers are smarter than that. They would have to call the B&B to fix the clog and the toilet would never work again.

TAW

TAW Wrote:
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>
> nah! MAnagers are smarter than that. They would
> have to call the B&B to fix the clog and the
> toilet would never work again.
>
> TAW


even better, they'd put a bag over the can, close the restroom, and drop off a porta-John on site.

~ Mr. MRL

 

MrMRL Wrote:
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> TAW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> > nah! MAnagers are smarter than that. They would
> > have to call the B&B to fix the clog and the
> > toilet would never work again.
> >
> > TAW
>
>
> even better, they'd put a bag over the can, close
> the restroom, and drop off a porta-John on site.
>
> ~ Mr. MRL
>
Until someoe complained, they might move the "suggestion box" to replace the toilet.  

mapboy