Western Railroad Discussion > STB Chairman Oberman Blasts the Railroads, from Nov. 16

A search of TO didn’t turn up anything about this that I could find.  STB Chairman Martin Oberman really made the Class 1 railroads look bad with statistics (read the article).  He contrasted the labor problems of BNSF, CSX, NS and UP compared to CN, CP and KCS.  A couple sentences- “When railroads try to excuse their failures by pointing to labor shortages at other businesses, those other businesses did not enter the pandemic having stripped themselves of nearly 20% of their workforce in recent years.”  
“… cost cutting through employee layoffs have saved less than $5 billion in payroll costs while Class 1 railroads returned almost $60 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.”
There’s lots more worth reading.  It was in Virtual Railfan’s December Newsletter  https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/stb-chairman-sharply-criticizes-u-s-class-i-railroad-cutbacks-and-service-failures/  at Trains Newswire  https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/stb-chairman-sharply-criticizes-u-s-class-i-railroad-cutbacks-and-service-failures/  and many other places.

mapboy

Any current or retired Rail should not be surprised.

Posted from iPhone

Calling out the hypocrisy in management and among board members is a crucial element in conveying a consistent message on labor.

There's no question that picketing CEO and social critic Jamie Dimon's home in Greenwich helped make an across the board pay raise for tellers and clerks possible.

Posted from Android

Oberman  can call them anything he wants but, what authority does he have to punish the railroads and make them correct this?  None that I can see.

tomstp Wrote:
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> Oberman  can call them anything he wants but,
> what authority does he have to punish the
> railroads and make them correct this?  None that
> I can see.

Squeaky wheels occasionally get greased...you don't always need authority....just a pulpit from which to speak. 

mapboy Wrote:

 "Oberman made the Class 1 railroads look bad with statistics"...while this is true,  the railroads made themselves look bad by retaining idiots to submit incorrect data repeatedly to the STB, with the railroads having to file additional paperwork with the STB to explain their errors. LOL.