This morning I was informed that after several decades as a member of the Denver Service Unit that I have been furloughed. Recently the laborer craft had been trained to do the mechanical locomotive inspections. They began one week ago today and this morning 13 electricians, 8 machinists, and 2 mso were asked to clean out their lockers. Average Service time is well over 20 years. This group survived the Denver Burnham Shop closure in 2016. This is a sad day! 😢
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Sorry to hear that! Was anyone offered transfers or employment at other locations? Good luck to all of you.
The people that were laid off had more than 400 years of combined service. It breaks my heart and my souls that friends of over 20 years had to walk out. The company also strategically laid them off at this time so they did not have to pay them vacation for next year. No severance, nothing. What a piece of work UP!
They are not planning to grow a company. They are looking to grow their pockets. They do not care when they exit and leave the mess to someone else as long they got money.
These d-mba$$ managers and completely brain dead executives couldn't run a lemonade stand if they had instructions in front of them. YOU DON'T GROW A COMPANY BY MAKING IT SMALLER! You do in fact make it smaller, which also means less work and productivity. The UP is making themselves less of a competitor to the other class 1's by limiting capacity and giving the competitors the work they think is unnecessary. Obviously Vena isn't paying attention to what happened last time. The UP downsized, laid off thousands, work came back, but not many people did! These boneheads better wake up, or someone else is going to!
We just had an hour long meeting
(waste of time actually) talking about growth. I see alot more shrinking, downsizing all the opposite of growth. The only thing I ever see here that grows is MY list of things to do. How in the heck is it “safe” to keep piling on tasks and making each remaining job more and more complicated. This increases the risk each time this is done for someone to unintentionally miss something, therefore potentially not catching an unsafe situation. Might as well have aircraft mechanics vacuum the cabins, clean the toilets, repave the runways, load baggage, serve food inside the airport, and monitor the parking lots. What could go wrong?
Might as well get rid of the track and bridge inspectors. Let engineers inspect while going down the track.
Coming soon to a shop near you! It’s just like five years ago all over again!!
Joe gave the railroads license to decimate the unions when he allowed congress to end the last strike, and force the contract on members.
An engineer in WY is suing UP over some artificial intelligence that malfunctioned causing a wreck.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/04/22/wyoming-railroad-engineer-sues-union-pacific-over-ai-train-driver/
Sooooo have the engineers stop the train at every crossing and do the FRA monthly test and inspections too haahaa
I’m glad they did this! Just let the engineers running the locomotive decide what’s safe or not when they get on a locomotive. Let the conductors inspect the cars and switches and stuff.
The engineers and conductors know enough to tell what’s safe and what’s not! Let the engineers inspect the track when they’re going down the line.
Too many people doing too little. There will be much bigger profits for a while after sending all these “inspectors” home. When stuff breaks, fix it. Until then, why are companies spending so much money on inspecting stuff?
I don’t know why they even had all these employees in the first place! We’re gonna win together!
So sorry for your loss. It’s a complete nightmare for the unions to sit back and do nothing while the railroad destroys the union members. Unfortunately this is just the beginning as other locations have started implementing this cross training for laborers. There will be more before this month is over.
So they gave some folks some "shake and bake" training on inspections and think they're going to get the same level of inspection?
I'm sure thats one of the goals, fire those that are most likely to find defects that need fixing...
The last of d&rgw maintenance location in Denver is now dead and vena is very pleased with himself. His dream to follow his mentors drive of a railroad into the ground is almost complete
I bet they will still drive that piece of sh-t steam engine around while cutting all the guys that actually do the work
This is "How we win together!" By getting rid of our employees who actually do the work. UP showing their true colors yet again. And they wonder why their employees, their customers, and the general public usually don't have very nice things to say about them.
Were there any mechanical jobs left? Did they leave a skeleton crew?
hOw wEe winn! oPeRaSHunuL eGgselLeNcE!
So sorry to read about layoffs .
Wonder if this will be the trend for remaining mechanical craft jobs????
True Story! Three weeks short of 100 days to qualify for 2025 vacation and the July 1st contract roster bonus. Five days pay and 4 months health insurance after over 25 years. I wouldn't want that kind of karma. No Way!