trackwaalker Wrote:
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> >
> > Fooey. They were hired as UPemployees, not
> > contactors. And when UP didn't need them any
> > more, they were furloughed, meaning they lost
> > their jobs. Period.
>
> Obviously you know little about boilermakers. When
> the job is done, you just go back to the hall and
> take the next job as it comes up. You don't "work"
> for a company, you loan them your services and
> skills until either the job is done or you decide
> you want a change of scenery and go back to the
> hall. No company owns you. You work out of your
> local. The local provides your healthcare, your
> retirement (rather lucrative) and everything else.
> The employer just give you money for your skills.
> To quote a old hand; "I was looking to wear out
> my old clothes and meet a low class of people,
> I've done both so I think I'll leave now."
> "Furloughed" is a railroad term, doesn't mean
> thing to these men. They have hair on their chest,
> they are not a bunch of craven cowards.

Obviously, you know nothing about railroad hiring practices.
Railroads do NOT go to the union hall to get the next available
warm body. They hire straight out, off the street, people who
meet their specified qualifications, period.

Yes, once hired the person has to join the boilermakers union,
which has proven time and time again it gives a crap less
about you, as long as you pay your dues on time.

Once furloughed ("laid off" in any other industry), you can be
called back, in seniority order. There is no other way.

And no, you cannot just "go into train service". You have to
give up your BM seniority, then fall in and be hired as the
youngest man and start all over in terms of seniority. And if
the Railroad again needs boilermakers, you are SOL.

This ain't no shipyard job.