An Open Letter concerning BNSF attendance policy

June 27, 2000

To: All Concerned
From: Charles L. Little, International President

According to several respected railroad experts, the current largest cause of many railroad accidents can be attributed to fatigue. UTU has attempted to work with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) to address fatigue problems on that carrier's property.

No one in the rail industry wants a repeat of the problems caused by fatigue and related issues that plagued the Union Pacific Railroad after its merger with the Southern Pacific creating the worst service crisis in generations.

In fact, after initially being told that it didn't need the UTU's help to solve service problems, the Union Pacific finally accepted the UTU's offer of assistance, which helped solve the crisis and save the railroad.

UTU does not want history to repeat itself. Unfortunately, however, BNSF does not seem to have learned from recent railroad history.

Last summer, BNSF changed focus from solving this problem to being more concerned about manpower shortages. They demanded the implementation of an availability policy, which was later called an attendance policy. This policy put many BNSF employees in the position of being called to duty, often with less than two hours notice, to spend several days away from home.

Those who weren't called to duty were subject to call. The policy was in effect 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The UTU informed BNSF management that through our previous experience at Union Pacific Railroad we learned that solving the fatigue issue first made staffing level availability and attendance easier to solve later.

However, BNSF chose to disregard UTU's experienced observations. BNSF instead set about designing and implementing their availability policy. The policy was poorly designed and was an implementation failure. BNSF continued to focus on its availability policy instead of dealing with its fatigue problems. They set about to reengineer their policy. The result is that the "reengineered attendance policy" has once again proven to be an implementation failure.

The "new attendance policy" uses the threat of discipline to motivate train and engineer crew members to work and to be available for work. If an employee is viewed not to be in compliance with the BNSF policy, they are subject to discipline. When an employee wants to be off, they contact a central dispatching center located in Fort Worth. The employee then explains the reason for the request, and the carrier has notice that the employee will not be available for work.

BNSF has stated that they feel a very small percentage, probably around 1-2% of their employees, are abusing the system and are taking off work excessively. It is BNSF's contention that this lack of staffing causes trains to be delayed, primarily on weekends. UTU recognizes this problem and the necessity of finding a solution.

However, UTU also recognizes that there is a significant fatigue problem in the BNSF.  Fatigue is a result of inadequate staffing and we believe that fatigued people should not be threatened with discipline to force them to continue to work beyond what they believe to be a safe level.

Currently, there are well over 1,000 qualified employees off in force reductions. UTU has difficulty understanding BNSF's desire for further force reduction. If their efforts are successful, they could achieve a slight increase in earnings while taking the risk of having fatigued employees operating their trains. Studies have shown that fatigued employees make decisions similar to those made by individuals who are alcohol or drug impaired.

BNSF's policy has brought into question whether or not several employees in the following example are in compliance with their policy. These are employees whose earnings with wages and benefits exceed $70,000 a year.  These are employees who have to report regularly to cardiologists after cardiac difficulties. These are employees who take off work to transport their spouses for chemotherapy treatment because they will be too sick to drive themselves home. These are employees who have taken off work to be with a sick child in the hospital, lost that child, and attended the funeral have had their work records questioned and threatened with discipline.

BNSF's polices have already driven morale on the property to an all-time low.  The BNSF employees are unable to understand the priority that BNSF has placed on this policy. They have difficulty understanding the total failure in addressing the fatigue situation, which in turn causes so much hardship in their personal lives.

UTU has no interest in assisting BNSF to reengineer their failure. UTU believes it is necessary for BNSF to end their destructive efforts. UTU also questions whether BNSF management is beginning to lose their focus on their franchise because of their desire to seek a merger with the Canadian National Railway. UTU also questions whether a management system that continues to wrestle with this program and daily demonstrates its inability to deal with fatigue is prepared to deal with problems that would expand exponentially in a larger franchise. Will the shippers, stockholders and government once again be forced to suffer because of BNSF's inability to be able to manage properly?

It is UTU's hope that you will assist us in our efforts to encourage BNSF's management to refocus on the necessity of relieving their fatigue situation.

Unfortunately, if BNSF continues to choose to try to implement this policy, we would ask you to support UTU efforts to secure the passage of H.R. 3091, introduced by Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio). This legislation would allow a railroad employee to have three days off after working or being available for service seven consecutive days. UTU believes that it is necessary to continue to secure passage of this legislation because BNSF appears to have failed to learn what UTU learned from the crisis at UP.

UTU will seek other avenues to relieve the fatigue situation in every possible form, including but not limited to, the Surface Transportation Board and the Federal Railroad Administration. We are not only saddened by BNSF's inability to deal with this issue, we are concerned for ourselves and others.

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