 |
Re: Is UP going into another meltdown again?
Author: SP5103
Date: 04-02-2017 - 14:18
RR Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> What every anybody does, Don't go to work for
> that outfit at Plaster City,Ca
> Southern California Railroad, the switching
> contractor for USG. One of out guys
> on the UP out of SLO and Bakersfield, got hurt out
> there and that RRPRes, has not
> workers comp and claims to be covered by FELA
> (LOL) sure!! The poor former conductor
> is walking around with a cane and has a bad case
> of STENOSIS in his body.
>
> Just a fair warning.
Years ago I worked through a temp agency for the rail section at MCLB Yermo. I turned down a silly service job offer there. Some of the guys I worked with were great, but there was one a$$hole that thought his $hit didn't stink and would gleefully watch someone get hurt/killed and blame it on them. The manager was ok, but not a rail. Some time after I left, the rail section filed a formal complaint against the one person, and HR's solution was to send everyone else to tolerance school.
From there I went to Plaster City - can't say the weather was that much different. The job was better and so was the pay. The narrow gauge was and is operated by USG, there was also a standard gauge switching contractor that I worked for. Typically USG got a switch Mon-Fri three times a day at shift change, you normally worked two of the three switches as a split swift, maybe five hours a day on average. I know the early days of the operation had some issues, and I seem to recall hearing that someone did get hurt.
I was there about a year and a half. Didn't have anyone that was xUP, and no one got hurt beyond a Bandaid. That was probably the peak of that switching operation and the parent company. Most of their properties were doing well, and there was a good management structure, and they weren't scared to spend money. I left because the job was changing from just switching to include loading the cars, and I had no real interest in doing that.
After I left, there was a complaint filed by the employees with the state labor board. They had dropped the beginning salary to get the loading contract, and were working everyone over 40 hours a week without overtime pay. No surprise - the state ordered an overtime rate and back pay as there were not RRB/FELA but under state rules. The recession hit everyone hard. USG's production dropped to almost nothing, they were lucky to load as many railcars in a month as they used to in a day or two. The last I heard, they are still struggling to keep going and there just isn't too much production and resulting rail traffic. The other USG switching operation in Texas also suffered and I heard they got outbid for that contract, and the parent company lost one of their lucrative switching contracts because the two assembly plants they were switching were permanently closed in the Chrysler bankruptcy, and that in turn ended up bankrupting one of their shortlines in a dispute with BNSF.
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> What every anybody does, Don't go to work for
> that outfit at Plaster City,Ca
> Southern California Railroad, the switching
> contractor for USG. One of out guys
> on the UP out of SLO and Bakersfield, got hurt out
> there and that RRPRes, has not
> workers comp and claims to be covered by FELA
> (LOL) sure!! The poor former conductor
> is walking around with a cane and has a bad case
> of STENOSIS in his body.
>
> Just a fair warning.
Years ago I worked through a temp agency for the rail section at MCLB Yermo. I turned down a silly service job offer there. Some of the guys I worked with were great, but there was one a$$hole that thought his $hit didn't stink and would gleefully watch someone get hurt/killed and blame it on them. The manager was ok, but not a rail. Some time after I left, the rail section filed a formal complaint against the one person, and HR's solution was to send everyone else to tolerance school.
From there I went to Plaster City - can't say the weather was that much different. The job was better and so was the pay. The narrow gauge was and is operated by USG, there was also a standard gauge switching contractor that I worked for. Typically USG got a switch Mon-Fri three times a day at shift change, you normally worked two of the three switches as a split swift, maybe five hours a day on average. I know the early days of the operation had some issues, and I seem to recall hearing that someone did get hurt.
I was there about a year and a half. Didn't have anyone that was xUP, and no one got hurt beyond a Bandaid. That was probably the peak of that switching operation and the parent company. Most of their properties were doing well, and there was a good management structure, and they weren't scared to spend money. I left because the job was changing from just switching to include loading the cars, and I had no real interest in doing that.
After I left, there was a complaint filed by the employees with the state labor board. They had dropped the beginning salary to get the loading contract, and were working everyone over 40 hours a week without overtime pay. No surprise - the state ordered an overtime rate and back pay as there were not RRB/FELA but under state rules. The recession hit everyone hard. USG's production dropped to almost nothing, they were lucky to load as many railcars in a month as they used to in a day or two. The last I heard, they are still struggling to keep going and there just isn't too much production and resulting rail traffic. The other USG switching operation in Texas also suffered and I heard they got outbid for that contract, and the parent company lost one of their lucrative switching contracts because the two assembly plants they were switching were permanently closed in the Chrysler bankruptcy, and that in turn ended up bankrupting one of their shortlines in a dispute with BNSF.
