OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific has implemented engineer scheduling at nearly three quarters of its crew hubs.
The agreements, reached between the railroad and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, put engineers on a schedule that includes 11 days on and four days off. They previously were on call up to 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
Under a tentative agreement reached in May 2023, UP and the union expected to roll out the 11/4 scheduling systemwide by July 1, 2024. When the deadline came and went without full implementation, the BLET filed a lawsuit.
At the time, UP said the number of starts per engineer had fallen, rather than remained stable as the railroad and union had hoped. The union argued that UP unilaterally modified the agreement by placing engineers returning from rest days at the top of the call list, rather than at the bottom.
Now engineer scheduling is in place at 20 of UP’s 28 crew hubs, executives said on the railroad’s earnings call last week.
One of the goals, CEO Jim Vena says, is to ensure that all engineers have the same number of starts per month as they did before adoption of the 11/4 schedule. “We’re close but not perfect,” he said in an interview. “And that’s the stuff that we have to work through.”
Keeping the number of work days level is important for both the union and the railroad. For engineers, it means stable income after the shift to scheduled work. For UP, it means the railroad doesn’t have to hire more engineers to handle the same amount of traffic.
Vena, who worked as a conductor and engineer early in his career at Canadian National, says he understands how important it is for engineers to be able to know when they’ll be working and when they’ll have days off.
“We’re a better railroad when we get to a place that we can maximize the number of people that know what their schedule is,” he says.
Vena says he has spoken with engineers who want to maximize their income and therefore don’t like the scheduling system. But he says the majority support working 11/4.
UP has not been able to reach a scheduling agreement with the SMART-TD union that represents conductors. SMART-TD has five separate regional contracts with UP, which Vena says complicates negotiations.
“I think there’s a deal to be made with SMART,” Vena says. “So far they’ve decided that we’re not on the same page, but we’ll go through that and get to the right place.”
A lot left out. I don’t know what they mean by crew hubs. There’s a lot more than 28 terminals that the 11/4 agreement applies to. My home terminal has been in dispute over some actions that the railroad wants but wasn’t in the agreement. I just learned that we have come to terms, but don’t know particulars or when the 11/4 will be implemented.
Placing engineers first out when coming off of rest days wasn’t in the original language. The railroad always says that when someone lays off, it makes it harder for those behind them on the board to gauge when they’re going to go to work. So being first out, ready to go and then have 4 or 5 mark back up ahead of you makes it easier to gauge when you’re going to go to work? Depending on circumstances, that could mean that instead of going to work at 2pm, you now might go to work at 2am.
They actually need more engineers at a specific terminal because at any given time you will have X number of engineers off. Within that 11 day working period, engineers will have to take “smart rest” of 22 1/2 hours off between tours of duty to avoid the Federal Requirement of 48/72 hours off after working 6/7 consecutive tours of duty. That alone can make it hard to get 11 starts in 11 days.
To get engineers to ratify this, all engineers in road and extra board service will now get the extra board guarantee in effect on their districts. Except those working “long pool” extended run assignments, most won’t be able to “break” guarantee each pay half. The company is going to pay out a lot of guarantee, that’s one reason the railroad would like to renegotiate the agreement. With the guarantee, most will be making about the same, maybe a little more with 8 days off a month. Those that will have problems making the same amount as before are those who can’t stay marked up 11 days in a row and layoff in an uncompensated status. As a penalty, laying off uncompensated loses the guarantee for the half.
One terminal in my district has the 11/4. They seem to like it. One reason the conductors haven’t signed on is that they already have a guarantee on road jobs. There isn’t a big carrot for them to get them to sign.
This article is pure UP propaganda! As a previous employee and friends with many current employees schedules have gotten worse. Time away from h9me has increased, and working conditions have deteriorated.
Potential of 11 trips of 12 hours each? Going to be some tired engineers.
Suspect that this will enable UP to better manage its crews and not as many call outs for HOS failures. Might really improve OTP.
Sounds as if conductor’s union shooting members in the foot. Of course, conductors worried about long term employment.