[The engineers and conductors who drive the nations freight trains
have had it. Theyre tired of unpredictable, inflexible work schedules.
Theyre tired of being penalized for taking days off when theyre sick
or tending to a family emergency. They want a better quality of life.]
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HOW AN ATTENDANCE POLICY HAS LED THE U.S. TO THE BRINK OF A
NATIONWIDE RAIL STRIKE  
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Andrea Hsu
September 14, 2022
NPR
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_ The engineers and conductors who drive the nation's freight trains
have had it. They're tired of unpredictable, inflexible work
schedules. They're tired of being penalized for taking days off when
they're sick or tending to a family emergency. They want a better
quality of life. _

Workers service the tracks at the Metra/BNSF railroad yard in
Chicago, Scott Olson/Getty Images

 

Like so many essential workers in the pandemic, the engineers and
conductors who drive the nation's freight trains have had it.

They're tired of unpredictable, inflexible work schedules. They're
tired of being penalized for taking days off when they're sick or
tending to a family emergency. They want a better quality of life.

Now, they're making their voices heard, threatening a strike
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could bring trains to a halt nationwide on Friday.

Freight railroads and the unions representing more than 100,000 rail
workers have been negotiating a contract for several years. The stakes
are high and a presidential emergency board appointed by President
Biden recommended a compromise over the summer that would give workers
a 24% increase in wages. Both sides — the unions and the railroad
companies — have essentially agreed to the board's economic
proposals.

But there remains one major sticking point that could derail all of
it: a workplace attendance policy that the unions call draconian.

"This abusive and punitive attendance policy is breaking apart
families and causing locomotive engineers and other railroaders to
come to work dangerously fatigued," the Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers and Trainmen said in a statement in May.

The unions now want a change to the policy to ensure that workers can
take time off to tend to medical needs when necessary, without fear of
discipline.

In the middle of the pandemic, railroads introduce a policy that
workers hate

Points-based attendance policies are not new. Employers, including
Amazon and Walmart, use them as a way to reduce unexpected absences
from work. But such policies are fairly new to railroads.

BNSF Railway introduced its version, called Hi-Viz, in February 2022,
saying it would improve consistency for both crews and customers. The
unions say it has only made things worse.

Even before the system was introduced, railroad conductors and
engineers were essentially on call all the time, outside of paid
vacation and personal leave days (which they do accrue in amounts
determined by seniority). When they get called to work, they generally
have either 90 minutes or two hours to report to work.

Under Hi-Viz, if they are unavailable to report to work in that
window, they are docked points from a starting balance of 30.
Deductions range from 2 to 25 points, depending on the day. The more
valuable the day, the higher the deduction.

That means Fridays, Saturdays, holidays and so-called "high-impact
days," including Mother's Day and Super Bowl Sunday, result in larger
deductions. When their point balance falls to zero, they face a 10-day
suspension.

After that, their points are reset to 15. If their balance falls to
zero again, it's a 20-day suspension. If there's a third time, the
worker faces termination.

There are several ways workers can earn back points, including by
being available to work for 14 consecutive days.

A Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) engine pulls a train loaded with
coal in Chicago, Illinois.  Scott Olson/Getty Images

Americans went on a pandemic buying spree after railroads had pared
back staff

A number of factors put pressure on the railroads to implement such a
system. For one thing, cargo volumes in the pandemic soared to record
highs, as Americans went on a buying spree. There was simply a lot of
stuff that had to be moved, and BNSF says it needs consistent and
reliable attendance to stay competitive.

However, freight railroads had pared back their workforce dramatically
since 2015 in a bid to reduce costs and increase profits. They
introduced changes such as running fewer but longer trains, and
waiting until trains are full to leave the terminal.

The federal Surface Transportation Board Chair Martin Oberman
testified in April 2022 that he'd raised red flags because the
workforce had shrunk by 29% — or about 45,000 employees — over the
last six years.

With a leaner workforce, rail workers describe difficulties in
scheduling time off even for anticipated events. You can't count on
getting your preferred holidays off, especially if you lack seniority.
Even for other days, workers are often told they cannot have the day
off because too many others have already requested it.

The points-based attendance system penalizes anyone who tries to
circumvent the system by simply calling in sick on a day that they had
requested off but were denied.

The system also ends up penalizing people who are actually sick or
have emergencies or family matters to attend to.

"We had a union member who missed a funeral, and another one who had
to attend a funeral... and their points ended up getting zeroed out,"
says Kathleen Bisbikis, whose husband has worked for the railroads for
24 years out of Stockton, California. She is also national president
of a group of family members and other supporters of the rail workers'
union called the BLET Auxiliary.

BNSF Railway stands by the policy

BNSF says it made changes to its attendance policy earlier this year
based on employee feedback, including increasing the number of points
a worker can accrue with good performance. Since starting its
points-based attendance system, the company says it has seen more
planned vacation days taken as compared with before the system was in
use.

BNSF also says this year it increased the number of personal leave
days by 25%. The presidential emergency board has also recommended one
additional day of paid leave as part of the workers' package.

It's still not enough for the unions. After laboring through the
pandemic, they say, workers deserve better.

Bisbikis says there's been a mass exodus of workers because of the
attendance policy.

"I'm not talking about just young guys who... don't have a lot
invested, so they can go start another career," she says. "I'm talking
about older, invested, 21-plus years at the railroad. They've left.
They've left because they just don't want to deal with it."

_Andrea Hsu is NPR's labor and workplace correspondent._

* railroads
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* strike
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* working conditions
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