Those unfamiliar with the WARN act should look it up, basically a company that employs more than 100 people MUST give 60 day written notice to its employees and local officials before a mass layoff/shop closure. (Desoto, Jenks, and others) there are exceptions such as bringing back the workers prior to a 6 month timeline. It’s wirth your time to read into the law and understand your rights.
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They recalled exactly 66% or 2/3 at DeSoto, well played UP, well played!!! No payout now for sure!!
There is a clause in the warm act that applies to a national emergency. So since most layoffs happened because of Covid 19 they probably won’t have to comply.
Good luck on the Warn Act its pretty much like the New York Dock everyone always talked about. This country is run by attorneys and always has been. If you really thing you can figure either one of these out more than can be disputed in court you would not be working for the railroad. You will be dead before attorneys make their millions fighting it out in court. Good luck if you dont think RR isnt playing things right on the line. They know what they are doing.
First off I’m a veteran, secondly I’ve been furloughed for 6 months, third, I’ve done figured out the union higher ups are in cahoots with UP so they continue to get their 6 figure salary and probably kick backs from the company itself while blowing smoke up the arses of the people they are suppose to be representing.
What about the amount of veterans this company say they employ to get government kickbacks and tax incentives. Imagine how many are on the books and how many have actually been let go or furloughed. These are just 2 instances our fearless leaders in our union could fight some of the injustices done by this company. However, not having spray in locomotives seems to be the way our unions are planning to fight for our jobs....SMH
Sadly no one will get paid or if they do it won’t be much because the lawyer fees for the class action will eat up a good chunk of the money you would have gotten. Best advice is don’t hold your breath, try to find a job that ACTUALLY treats you like a person not a number, and enjoy your family.
The one interesting thing about Pine Bluff is that sometimes Union Pacific considered it a part of the Little Rock service area and other times as its own entity. For instance, Pine Bluff had different union locals than Little Rock and seniority was separate from Little Rock. On the other hand, the Director at Little Rock was also be over Pine Bluff and was be responsible for making decisions in Pine Bluff. I was told when we were laid off that we were considered part of the Little Rock region and so our furlough was under the number required for the Warn act. Union Pacific did their homework and it was essentially splitting hairs, something that will take a long time to litigate in court.
Either way, it's water under the bridge for me. Union Pacific will fight this in court if they have to. They have the attorneys and money to keep it tied up for a long time. I think the unions know this and that is why they are not concerned with fighting this. While I'm sure if it gets to court Union Pacific would want this ruled in their favor, ultimately it won't matter to them much as they could kick the can down the road for a while, just write it off as a business expense, and continue on. The unions locals, facing declining memberships, are looking at losing money as well. They know the uphill challenge facing them so they would rather lie to their members and keep collecting the union dues. I don't think the mechanical department union locals for Pine Bluff exist anymore.
I was laid off by that shlthole company too, and it s—s either way you look at it. Do you really think that the attorneys for the UP haven't already looked into this and convened a meeting with the executives to find a way around the WARN act? Come on folks, let's be realistic about this. The UP has some of the highest paid attorneys working for them. How many times did an article pop up saying a location is being "idled", as opposed to being closed? Ever wonder why many layoff articles never gave an exact number? Yet thousands of employees have lost their jobs already. That's largely due to the layoffs being spread out over time, instead massive layoffs at once. I'm in no way siding with UP on this. Folks, there's just no way a company like this violates a major labor law like the WARN act, without having legal counsel heavily involved.
Yes that is a violation of the Warn act and I’m sorry to hear that the useless union fails to communicate with you all down there. Don’t you worry tho, if they don’t pay out the 60 days pay for the 1100 furloughed that day, there will be a class action and you all will be included.
They closed down Pine Bluff and laid off everybody except for maybe 12 high seniority people. Around 60 people were notified that day and they were laid off effective immediately. Shaw called those who were on their scheduled day off to let them know they no longer had a job and to come in and get their personal belongings. I believe the way UP closed Pine Bluff violated the Warn act. The unions quit communicating with those of us furloughed so apparently they won't help fight for us.
They still have 13 days, that’s the 6 month deadline, doesn’t matter after that how many they bring back, they still gotta fork over 60 days pay
If they have recalled over 2/3 of the staff they are void of the WARN act yes. Desoto has recalled 16 carman and they furloughed 196 so they still far short of the 2/3
North platte had a lay off in 2016 after denver closed
They recalled people at all three shops they closed for the pandemic. They’re not officially closed so it voids the WARN act
They were still hiring like crazy in 2015. These layoffs started in 2018, before that the most recent layoff was back in 2008 which bit them in the @$$ just like these will. If anything the layoffs are attributable to the company deciding to run the failure PSR program. It was a hot topic question repeatedly asked by employees to the CEO in townhall meetings after CSX hired their now deceased former ceo who took that company to the woodshed before his death.
Yes you are correct, they can pay 60 days in lieu of notice I agree with that comment 100%
There’s a provision in the law saying they can pay the affected employees 60 days pay in lieu of giving a 60-day notice, which is what they did in Los Angeles.
What shops have been closed since 2015? The warn act only applies if a company (closes a facility) or (furloughs 2/3 of a facilities employees) in any case they are required by the law, in THOSE cases to give 60 days written notice.
No they won't. The OP needs to have a much better understanding of the WARN act before a conclusion is made. The layoffs have been happening regularly since 2015, and gained momentum after PSR. If you read the WARN act, then you'll see the UP has done layoffs that followed the act very closely
- They have profited over a billion dollars every quarter, 2. they only had mass layoffs in certain places 3. The law states that if layoffs are foreseeable they must give written notice as soon as possible. 4. Car leadings, stock prices, etc etc started falling months before the mass layoffs/shop closures. So let them try that route, I doubt they get very far with it!! (G55/PSR) that’s the real motivation not covid, and I’m guessing that would be easy to prove in court.
There was an article floating around about this but there was something in there about Covid related layoffs so knowing the company if there is any type of out they’ll try to use it.
No. If anything they may have to pay the states they violated the act in. The state definitely isn’t going to pass any to you