UTU officers give STB’s Morgan an earful

UTU officers give STB’s Morgan an earful

NS has to fix its culture; CSX given strong support

WASHINGTON (June 28) – Top UTU officials told the Surface Transportation Board’s (STB) Linda Morgan in a conference call on Friday that Norfolk Southern Corp. needs to change its corporate culture or risk failure with its recent acquisition of Conrail.

Ohio Legislative Director Bill Thompson said, "Until someone talks to NS about their attitude, then you haven’t gotten to the root of their problem." His statement was greeted with, "Amen. Amen" by others.

Said Virginia Legislative Director Richard Jeskey: "CSX is willing to deal with their problems, and NS is trying to cover them up. The carpet’s not big enough to cover them."

Said another state director, Michigan’s Dave Brickey, "Were doing a lot of talking to NS, but no one’s listening. I’ve not had one complaint from a CSX employee, but I’ve got a ton of complaints from NS employees."

UTU Assistant President Byron A. Boyd said, "I’m concerned because if it’s going to be a meltdown situation on NS, and it looks like that could be the case, then we have to act quickly before this gets worse and shuts down the country."

On the other hand, they said that CSX is having fewer problems and is "doing things right" and that "CSX treats us as partners, NS treats us as adversaries."

These are a few of the comments about the state of the Conrail carve-up by CSX and Norfolk Southern that UTU officials told Morgan, STB chairperson, on Friday (June 25) during a two-hour conference call. This was the first large conference call that Morgan and the STB have conducted with a union since the Conrail carve-up on June 1. Morgan requested that the UTU set up regular conference calls with her office to keep on top the Conrail integration issue.

Participating from the UTU were Boyd, National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer, Alternate National Legislative Director James Stem, NS and CSX general chairmen, and state legislative directors from Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, New Jersey, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Illinois, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

Joining Morgan from the STB were Richard Armstrong, the chairperson’s chief of staff, as well as the board’s Director of Office of Compliance and Enforcement Mel Clemens.

Brunkenhoefer set the tone at the outset saying, "Our goal here is not to be critical of any one carrier, but to find solutions for everybody."

Morgan said: "We appreciate the input you are going to give us here. You are the folks out there and we will be doing a lot of listening to what you have to say."

UTU officers then gave Morgan a checklist of problems – most of which are occurring on the Norfolk Southern railroad. She was also told that NS turned down a Union Pacific offer of crew help.

Morgan heard that Dearborn, Mich., "is like ground zero because so many problems are caused by that area." She also heard it is not improving very much.

She was told that in too many cases crews don’t know what’s on a train, and that there have been reports of dangerous materials on trains that are not accounted for.

About Bellevue, Morgan was told that "it is digging itself out and is holding its own" but that there is a serious manpower problem. She was told there were not enough people, especially "trained people."

Morgan was repeatedly told about manpower problems and crew shortages, inferior and dangerous taxi service transporting crews, hours of service issues, crew calling foul ups, crews being stranded on trains and away from home, no waybills in advance of trains, and crew management problems in Atlanta, Dearborn and elsewhere.

As for crew shortages, she was told that "a good one-third of these crews’ time is sitting on trains after hours of service expired or at an away terminal."

"Seems to me like there’s an awful lot of confusion going on, and that has to clear up," Morgan said.

Among the suggestions, Morgan was told that the use of utility brakemen could help clear up rail-grade crossing congestion, especially in the Toledo area.

The issue of no toilets on NS locomotives has come alive again, Morgan was told. She heard that NS "took away engines with toilets from former Conrail employees and gave them engines with no toilets and no plastic bags." NS had said that they corrected this problem, however. Morgan said, " I’m aware of that and we’ll follow up with NS on that."

Morgan was told by Brunkenhoefer and others that the transportation of rail crew employees operated in "an unbelievably large loophole" with "exhausted drivers driving exhausted rail workers across state lines" and that "serious accidents" had occurred because of this situation.

Morgan said she would look into the situation.

General Chairman Delbert Strunk told Morgan: "From June 1 to present there have been news and p.r. reports about the lack of cooperation of former Conrail employees. But if it wasn’t for the initiative of Conrail workers and UTU officers, I don’t know where we would be right now. These people have gone beyond the call of duty to make this thing work. If NS doesn’t make a cultural change soon, this isn’t going to work."

Boyd said: "On UP, when we went through this kind of period, the answer was to create an atmosphere of mutual cooperation. If both sides don’t do it, it won’t work. If you get to the point that the people out there who really are carrying the ball think it’s useless to keep trying and nobody cares, then you’re in trouble. Then this thing will implode so quick nobody can save it. On the UP, it wasn’t until their chairman asked Charlie Little and me how to save their railroad did it start, and it saved the UP. If you don’t have cooperation of the parties and the mutual respect for each other, then this thing is in trouble. NS has to understand that fact, and fast.

Morgan answered: "One of the things we have been doing at the Board is trying to get mutual cooperation working. This is critically important and if we don’t lay down the right markers right now, it may get away from us."

Boyd said: "The focal point here should be the whole U.S. rail system. If this thing goes down, it could be worse than it was on UP."

Said Jim Stem: "Even though we don’t want to compare the two companies, CSX is reaching out to our people to solve the problems, NS isn’t and won’t listen to our people and their suggestions."

Most of the two-hour conference call was taken up by concerns about NS. Initially, one hour was to be devoted to each railroad. But CSX universally was praised for its attention to union workers, ability to react quickly to problems, and superior communications between the company and its union employees.

Said Brickey, "I haven’t had one complaint regarding CSX from workers in Michigan. CSX keeps us up to date, they have little snags and we tell them about it and they get right on it and get it taken care of."

General Chairman Terry Reed told Morgan: "I can tell you that everything we have brought to CSX has been handled quickly. Yes, they still have problems and still have trouble with taxis, but they employed two more taxi companies in Cleveland. Because of payroll problems, CSX is sending 446 people paychecks in overnight mail and they have people in field writing vouchers if they have to."

Ohio Legislative Director Bill Thompson told Morgan: "I’ve had only one complaint in the first three weeks with CSX. CSX reaches out to us and asks us if there are any problems they can fix. We have a weekly conference call and they call regularly asking for our input."

Indiana’s Jim Carrico said: "We have good communication with CSX, and no communication with NS."

New Jersey’s Dan O’Connell said: "CSX contacts me frequently and gives me an overview of what’s happening and asks about problems. They seem to be reaching out everywhere."

Morgan was told that the Avon Yard was improving and was backed up because of Cleveland. She was also told that we are only hearing "bad things from our people in Elkhart."

Brickey said that CSX’s GM division is "always calling letting us know what’s going on and wanting to know about problems and if there is anything they can do. The only problems up here are created by NS. At Delray, NS only gave CSX a 4-hour window to run trains. NS has a totally different attitude on how they go about things."

Florida’s Chairman Carl Cochran said: "If NS had done what CSX did a few years ago, they wouldn’t be in the spot they are today. NS has been playing total defense from day one, and CSX has been playing total offense."

Cochran added: "I don’t know where we’d be today without Charlie Little, Broken Rail, and Byron Boyd and what they did for safety on CSX. I also have to give a lot of credit to Jim Schultz and Frank Pursley, and Joe D. Lydick at the FRA. I can’t say enough about those guys and what they’ve done."

Morgan was told that Chicago is a "sticky wicket for CSX because NS is blocking tracks."

She heard that "from day 1, CSX has been handling NS trains to try to clear up this mess."