April 2024 Update
Yesterday, some of the Local Chairmen met with Terminal Superintendent Jason Ault and discussed some upcoming changes the company is making. I will provide more details about the changes below. Going forward, I will be posting these updates on a monthly basis to keep everyone informed and up to date.
Restructuring - Typically, the Local Chairmen meet with the Division Superintendent to discuss issues and changes. However, due to some restructuring in management, the Terminal Superintendent essentially holds the authority previously held by the Assistant Division Superintendent. This means that Jason Ault is now the direct supervisor to each Trainmaster in the Birmingham Hub and has the authority to address issues or concerns brought forward. This change shouldn’t affect your day-to-day operations, but I wanted to make everyone aware of it. If you have an issue that you don’t feel is being addressed by your Local Supervisor, Jason Ault is next in the chain of command.
Attendance - System-wide, the company has decided that there isn’t as much of a manpower shortage as there are attendance issues. An email was sent out yesterday instructing supervision to be more stringent when upholding the attendance policy. So, I expect that a push will be made to handle more people for attendance. Familiarize yourself with the attendance policy (linked below) and act accordingly.
T&E and Yardmaster Absenteeism Policy
Training Center - Related to the topic of attendance, the Training Center has temporarily suspended operations until Transportation, HR, and Marketing can agree on the number of employees that need to be hired. They feel that the head count is too high and employee availability is too low. So until those issues are fleshed out, I don’t expect to see any more Conductor job postings.
Handbrakes - There is a push to ensure that all handbrakes are fully released prior to departing your initial terminal and pickup locations. Of course, at your initial terminal, you’re only required to check the head 6 cars, and responsibility for any car further back will fall on the Car Dept. However, when you are picking up cars on the line of the road, ensure that you are properly inspecting the cars, ensuring that all handbrakes are released, and performing the necessary brake tests. Local Supervision has to investigate each time a train is stopped due to applied handbrakes, and they are being instructed to handle those at fault with formal discipline in accordance with the START program.
Run Through Switches - Over the past several months, any rule violation derailment or incident has been handled with a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) to determine what events took place and what actions can be taken by the company and each individual to prevent a future incident. Through that process, a trend has become apparent that there isn’t much to learn from an RCA about switches being run through other than human error when lining/double-checking routes and complacency. So going forward, an official RCA will no longer be conducted for run through switches. Instead, a Local Supervisor will have a ballast line conversation about the incident. Route alignment and run through switches are still a major issue for both newer and more senior employees. Care should be taken when lining a route to ensure that it is lined correctly. Although lining a route is one of the most basic tasks that railroaders perform, it must be completed with 100% accuracy or the outcome could be catastrophic.