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Thursday, March 18, 2004 |
Prof. Frederick C. Gamst, working rail and expert on the anthropology of work (speciality in railroad operations), describes the complexities of car handling. Print this and carry it on your person. When they tell you that a chimp could do your work or when they tell you that experience is irrelevant and that a 30 or 60 day RCO wonder can operate safely, throw this in their face:
In North America, railroad switching occurs within the confines of a central or satellite yard of a terminal, from a main track both within and outside of main-track yard limits, and in settings of industrial yards and spurs apart from a terminal's central yard. Both road freight-train crews and yard switch-engine crews do switching (marshalling). Crews conduct switching every day of the year, around the clock. Thus, switching is in fair weather, subfreezing cold, torrid heat, intense wind, rain, snow, fog, and blowing dust, including in pitch-black settings. All tracks are "live," i.e., can have rolling equipment move in any direction at any time by one's own or another engine and, accordingly, a track must not be fouled by one's body. "Kicked" free rolling cars are usually quiet in their approach and thus railroaders sometimes call them "silent death." A single car's weight can range from about 23 tons empty to over 130 tons loaded and may move in "cuts" (drafts) of several to many thousand tons and in lengths of up to a mile, or more. Footing can be insecure, on rough crushed rock ballast and with depressions in the ground and debris strewn between tracks.
Many variably sequentially interacting and simultaneous tasks compromise a crewmember's situational awareness while on the ground switching. The tasks include reading and comprehending a switch list (of cars to be moved to a particular location); giving and receiving manual signals by hand, lantern, and fusee (flare); giving and receiving voice-radio signals; monitoring voice-radio traffic to help maintain situational awareness; hanging on to the side of rolling equipment; climbing on and dismounting from such equipment; applying and releasing car hand brakes; aligning track switches; kicking cars; dropping cars; riding cars to a coupling; reading car identifying letters and numbers; judging the speed and closing distance of cars to be coupled to other cars, often while riding on the side of the lead car of a movement; observing close clearances and obstacles such as switch stands and rails; safeguarding pedestrians and automotive vehicles in the vicinity; knowing the location of other crewmembers and other impacted railroaders; thinking about particular chess-like moves in the efficient switching of cars; thinking about an overall schedule for the day's work to be done, often with reference to movements of other engines and trains and always with reference to the complex code of railroad operating rules; at rare times, being the person on the scene who has to attend to an injured or killed human, employee or other; and walking in the dynamic switching environment.
---Frederick C. Gamst is Professor Emeritus. He has a long-term involvement in and contributions to industrial and organizational ethnology within the broader field of the anthropology of work. His specializations comprise the social and industrial relations and social organizations of railroad work. He has 42 years firsthand experience with the railroad industry, as an operating employee, trade union officer, university researcher, and professional consultant--in North America, Australasia, China, Europe, and Africa. From the Society of the Anthropology of Work of the American Anthropological Association, he received its 1995 Conrad Arensberg Award for his development of the anthropology of work, industry, and organizations. Gamst's activities in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, and Djibouti) include over three decades of extensive basic research, applied work, professional service including election and campaigning monitoring (in war-torn Oromia, of the 23 million Oromo), publications, and technical reports. In the Horn, he has studied interplay of the social organization, economy, and cultural patterns of agrarian peoples and their problems of development--among the Amhara, Falasha/Beta Esrael, and Qemant. And he has studied the adaptations to change of one of Africa's few foraging peoples, the Wayto hippopotamus hunters of Tana. Gamst has published over 100 articles, chapters, proceedings, and shorter works; produced more than 100 consulting reports and technical papers on the railroad industry and related matters; prepared numerous reviews; and has written or edited 12 books, monographs, and documentaries. His biographical information is found in Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in America, and Who's Who in the World, and Harvard Business School's Profiles in Business and Management: An International Directory of Scholars and Their Research. Gamst has just retired from the Anthropology Department to a ranch in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He may be reached by e-mail at mailto:fcgamst@aol.com.
4:11:25 PM 
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Railworkers Strike Chokes Freight Traffic in Canada
by Chris Kutalik
A recent large-scale strike at Canada's biggest railroad gives evidence that
work stoppages at critical choke points in the economy can increase leverage
in workplace struggles.
More than 5,000 mechanics, inter-modal yard workers, and clerks from
Canadian Auto Workers Local 100 began walking pickets after their contract
with Canadian National Railway (CN) expired on February 20.
The strike hit freight traffic hard in Canada, especially at the railroad's
nine inter-modal terminals, critically important centers in transportation
networks where cargo containers are moved between trains and trucks. By
early March, 47 percent of CN's inter-modal freight traffic had been shut
off.
This damage to the company has occurred even though the union was forced to
carefully limit the strike-while still trying to maximize leverage-in order
to avoid government intervention. Railroad strikes in Canada are frequently
met by quickly passed legislation that brings strike activity to a halt.
As a consequence, CAW leaders made it a point to choose targets selectively,
according to Abe Rosner, a former Canadian Pacific worker serving as CAW's
field rep for the strike. The union, for instance, did not encourage members
of other unions at the railroad to walk out, but it did ask them not to do
work done by CAW members.
Similarly, the union chose on a short-term basis to have members of other
CAW locals in industries served by CN treat cargo as "hot goods" (cargo not
to be handled).
DRIVEN BY THE RANKS
According to Rosner, morale on the picket line was strong up to press time.
Rosner noted also that the pickets had taken on a "nationalist character"
with the frequent appearance of Canadian flags on the line-a reaction to
both CN's use of U.S. scabs and its current Tennessee-born CEO E. Hunter
Harrison.
In Winnipeg, strikers picketed the homes of 23 scab workers in the area.
According to the union, seven other workers were brought into Winnipeg-area
work sites from the United States.
In some cities, rank-and-file members tried to surpass the limits of the
strike. Riot police were called out March 5 to clear a picket line at the
Montreal terminal after 50 workers blocked incoming truck traffic. The
blockade shut down traffic on a main Montreal highway for three to four
hours. Close to a 100 picketers blocked March 8 dozens of trucks from
entering a terminal in Winnipeg for three hours.
"This is not the [leadership of the] union's strike, it's the workers'
strike," states Rosner. "We brought a tentative agreement to the membership
weeks before the strike and they voted it down. But the union leadership got
the message loud and clear, and we're all in it together." Local 100 members
voted mid-February by a little over 60 percent to reject the contract.
Despite wage and benefit increases in the tentative agreement higher than
most other agreements found on Canada's railroads, rank-and-file members
were angry over years of what Rosner describes as CN's "brutal treatment."
A rollback of a newly introduced discipline system-which many railworkers
perceive as unnecessarily harsh-has developed as a key union demand in the
strike. The union has criticized the system for its "heavy suspensions,
'deferred suspensions', and harassment of employees for real or perceived
safety and rules violations."
Expectations also ran high among rank-and-file members for larger wage and
benefit increases than the agreement offered. The railroad's operating ratio
(a comparison of operating income compared to costs) is one of the best in
the industry, with operating income increasing from $1.4 billion to $1.7
billion in 2003.
Workers frustrated by bearing the brunt of a dramatic reduction in the
workforce after CN's privatization in 1995-a drop from roughly 36,000
workers to 18,000-expected to receive a greater share from the new profits.
The union is now demanding bigger wage increases, better pension benefits, a
signing bonus, and a bonus system based on the operating ratio.
STRENGTH DOWN THE LINE
Because CN is a key shipper of auto parts and because the CAW represents
workers both on the railroad and in the auto plants, the strike has spilled
over into the auto industry.
In the strike's first week Ford was forced to send home thousands of workers
at several plants in southern Ontario as CAW members refused to load or
unload CN freight cars. Close to 1,200 workers at the St. Thomas plant were
sent home mid-shift due to a lack of parts coming from CN freight cars.
Work at some plants was also shut down when autoworkers refused to load
parts onto CN cars. About 250 workers were sent home from the Windsor Essex
plant after refusing to load V-6 engines.
CAW intra-union leverage has also been increased by its organized presence
at the inter-modal terminals. CAW Council 4000 currently represents 400
freight truck owner-operators that contract with Canadian National at the
terminals.
Although the drivers are in a different bargaining unit and can't legally
strike before their contract expires in late March, the owner-operators have
refused to cross the rail workers' pickets. CN has attempted to use third
party truckers (truckers who they don't normally contract with) to move
containers to different work sites, prompting the union to extend pickets to
these sites as a counter-tactic.
The railroad has also been attempting to use the drivers as a longhaul
freight alternative to its stalled rail shipments. The company is asking for
deliveries over thousands of miles rather than the local and regional short
hauls that the drivers are normally contracted for, drawing the ire of
drivers.
Talks between the union and the company broke down over the March 6-7
weekend. As Labor Notes goes to press, CN has announced that it would
"enhance its offer" and asked for the union to submit the conflict to
binding arbitration.
According to a Reuters report, Gary Fane, head of CAW's transportation
department, replied that the union rejected the offer in favor of "a
properly negotiated collective agreement." Fane added, "We don't want a
cooling-off period. In fact, we want to heat things up."
2:06:57 PM
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DICK DAVIDSON DECLARES AN $18+ MILLION DOLLAR BONUS FOR 2003 BUT THE REST OF THE INDUSTRY SUFFERS.
The Article below appeared in Traffic World.
Rail & Intermodal
UP in a Jam
Railroad struggles to keep network fluid
as lack of power, crews slows service
Union Pacific Railroad's mini service crisis is tying up freight while dragging down the company's earnings potential.
Severe winter weather along with a shortage of locomotive power and the crews to run them has left trains stopped dead on their tracks for two and three days at a time across the 33,000-mile UP network. Although the current crisis is not of the magnitude that caused the railroad's meltdown in 1998, it threatens to impede UP's ability to take advantage of an improving U.S. economy.
"Yes, it is affecting our ability to get the revenue growth that was predicted," said Greg Barbe, UP's vice president and general manager for industrial products. Based on economic growth projections, investments and overall system capacity, UP had forecast roughly 8 percent growth in its intermodal business and! 4 percent growth on the carload side for 2004.
The service crisis, combined with $35 million in damages UP must pay as a result of an accident at a grade crossing, forced UP to adjust its earnings forecast. The company originally targeted a 30 to 40 percent growth over the $0.57 per diluted share it earned from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2003. However, last week UP Chairman and CEO Dick Davidson said the company will not meet the low end of that projection. The verdict in the grade crossing case alone will cost about $0.08 per diluted share.
"Severe winter weather, c! ontinuing high fuel costs and lingering crew shortages primarily in the Western region" in January and February have hampered efforts to restore fluidity to the UP network, increasing costs and reducing revenue in the first quarter, Davidson said.
Crew shortages are a continuing and seemingly growing concern behind service problems at several railroads over the last two quarters, including Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway and CSX.
But UP seems to have been hit harder and longer.
In the week before Thanksgiving last year, an internal bulletin from vice presidents of the railroad's four operating regions conceded the railroad "should have hired sooner" more than 1,000 new employees, and asked current crews to work as many hours as possible during the holiday weekend.
"I went home that night and stuck that bulletin on my refrigerator," said a UP locomotive engineer who did not want to be identified. "It's the first time I've ever seen UP admit to anything."
The memo also was an indication, say union leaders, of not only poor planning at the railroad but also of a widespread atmosphere of employee abuse.
"I've been with the railroad for 41 years and this is the worst I've ever seen it," said Richard Karstetter, general chairman for the United Transportation Union, which represents UP conductors. "It's a crisis now, but we've been telling them the dike has been breaking for three years. Their answer has been to step up disciplinary action against its labor force. However, we're overworked to the point of exhaustion, and it is getting to the point where our members are actually looking forward to being disciplined because it's the only way that they can get some rest."
John Bentley, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, said work fatigue was an industry-wide problem. "Railroads in general are trying to get too much work done with not enough people and our members are suffering because of it," he said.
Karstetter said UP has started to address the problem. "They're hiring, and we're starting to see a difference in places like St. Louis," he said. "But much of this was too little too late. There are trains stopped all over America, and it's going to take months to dig out of this mess."
UP spokesman John Bromley acknowledged employees are getting more trip turns than normal but said the railroad is acting within the hours of service laws. "We've had a real problem getting people to stay marked up (available for work)," Bromley said. "In some instances there's been a high percentage of employees not available on weekends, and there has been disciplinary action taken to address that."
Last year UP hired more than 2,500 engineers and another 1,000 in January of this year. The plan for 2004 is to hire 3,500 trainmen.
UP customers, particularly those in the western portion of the UP system where the effect of the! labor shortage is biggest, have adjusted their transport plans accordingly. The Portland & Western Railroad, which interchanges lumber shipments with UP in the Pacific Northwest, is temporarily storing product in general-use boxcars until it can get high-end boxcars suitable for transporting finished paper.
"They've closed down their temporary crisis center that they set up last year up here to help with the problem, but there's still a backlog" of inventory, said Ron Vincent, director of customer service for the P&W. "The weather has been worse this year than in previous years, which hasn't helped. But all things considered, they've been doing an excellent job of reacting."
"The noise level from our customers has gotten quite loud," said Tom Shurstad, president of intermodal carrier Pacer Stacktrain, a big shipper of automotive parts on UP between Mexico, the United States and Canada. Because a lack of crews means having to park trains, "locomotives are no! t getting to destination fast enough before they have to turn around and go back," Shurstad said. He said UP was improving every day but "they haven't yet hit the right threshold."
To do that UP has to increase the overall velocity of its network, which has shown a dramatic downturn in average train speed in 2004 versus the same time last year. Experts say every one mile-per-hour increase in average train speed results in 250 additional locomotives that wouldn't otherwise be available.
UP wasn't placing a timeline on its recovery. "As we look to the remainder of the quarter, our outlook is unclear," said Davidson. "We are hopeful that a solid March performance will help us regain some of the momentum we lost earlier in the quarter. Once the difficult winter operating environment begins to improve, we continue to believe that our efforts will bear fruit."
Thank you for your continued support,
RRESQ
www.rresq.com
10:28:34 AM
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