OMAHA, Neb. — Union Pacific executives, including the board of directors, will take a 25% pay cut and non-union employees will be required to take one week per month of unpaid leave as the railroad deals with the financial impact of the COVID-19 virus. Both moves are effective May through August.
“I recognize this is a significant adjustment,” CEO Lance Fritz said in a statement. “I considered many possible scenarios, including furloughs or permanent workforce reductions, but ultimately decided that [required unpaid leave] would address our short-term needs.
In an email to employees, as reported by KETV-TV in Omaha, Fritz wrote, “Many of our customers have reduced or halted production and overall freight transportation has declined dramatically.” In its statement, the railroad said it had taken other cost-saving measures but they were not sufficient to offset the significant decrease in volume. Fritz’s email reported UP has cancelled its summer internship program, reduced or eliminated non-agreement hiring, and eliminated nonessential spending.
I wonder how this works for field managers – Roadmasters, Trainmasters, Signal Supervisors, B&B Supervisors … the list is quite long.
If a railroad worker is furloughed, what exactly does that mean in terms of pay, benefits, etc.?
What is the difference if any between being furloughed and laid off?
Is an agreement employee the same as a bargaining unit employee, i.e. represented by a union?
Have the railroads ever offered their bargaining unit members an early retirement program? If so, what were the terms?
Amtrak has suspended the Acela service. Assuming the engineers on the Acela service have seniority, would they be able to bump down to operating one of the regional trains?
Ted, I hope you were making that Big Boy comment as a joke. As an employee, that is the LAST thing I want to see running this year or for the next 3 years for that matter.
And did anyone besides me notice something about the headline? Execs taking a 25 percent pay cut. Makes for a big headline right? But if the non agreement employees are being forced to take one unpaid week off a month, arent they ALSO taking a 25 percent pay cut? But the Exec headline makes for a bigger boom. I am guessing the non agreement employees dont have millions in stock options and bonuses to fall back on either.
These people could file for uneployment for that unpaid time off.Big Boy 4014?The best thing that Building America can do is to keep the thing off the tracks until things get better.
Any bets on which group will recover their lost wages first after it is all over.
Wonder if there will be any appearances of Big Boy this year?
It is about time non skilled workers get furloughed because skilled workers on the rail road are always the first to face a lay off.
If they can tolerate all non-union employees have one unpaid week a month off (essentially a 25% pay cut) one has to wonder if maybe they have too many non-union employees…
My complements to UP for laying some of the “hurt” on executives and the BOD. As business levels rebound; it should be the executives and board who are last to be made whole. That would be a true demonstration of leadership.