Anyone been recalled recently?

[RailGrinder]

I wondered if anyone has been called back to work. I thought there was a post from someone in Baltimore or Cumberland asking about where they send the paperwork, so hopefully people are getting back to work. If you have been recalled others may want to see with what carrier and location. Thanks!

[YHump?Kickem]

Recall? Hell no, 10 more getting cut as we speak on the UP LA hub....

[TFB]

What he said. Sioux City and Aberdeen took a recent pounding rolling Willmar guys back to their home terminal. That rollback forced the issue here at NTW and as a result 5 more hit the 7 board here bringing our total now to about 75. The economy is not improving and what is even more amazing is the President is telling people it is going to get worse. What happened to hope and change? Oh wait, I have the change...my mistake.

[Hog&Tow]

Originally Posted by TFB

What he said. Sioux City and Aberdeen took a recent pounding rolling Willmar guys back to their home terminal. That rollback forced the issue here at NTW and as a result 5 more hit the 7 board here bringing our total now to about 75. The economy is not improving and what is even more amazing is the President is telling people it is going to get worse. What happened to hope and change? Oh wait, I have the change...my mistake.

Jesus Christ man, do you ever quit trying to blame everything on the Obama administration? as far as my terminal, I noticed two things last trip. the employee parking lot had a lot more cars in it & the yard was full of cars to be switched. I have pretty much been working on my rest for a week now. it might just be a sporadic thing, but I think it's picking up. sorry to piss on your sour grapes.

[TFB]

Originally Posted by Hog&Tow

Jesus Christ man, do you ever quit trying to blame everything on the Obama administration? as far as my terminal, I noticed two things last trip. the employee parking lot had a lot more cars in it & the yard was full of cars to be switched. I have pretty much been working on my rest for a week now. it might just be a sporadic thing, but I think it's picking up. sorry to piss on your sour grapes.

Blame? i was quoting the man from just this morning. I know facts get in the way of your fantasy, but that was a quote. Working your rest? I do not know how UP works, but BN its an offer of extra work and by taking it one reduces the opportunity for board growth and other guys to get back. Company man or union man?

[TFB]

Oh, and Superior and Willmar had more cuts as well today. Much more of this good news and one could quickly forget what bad news is.

[Hog&Tow]

Originally Posted by TFB

Blame? i was quoting the man from just this morning. I know facts get in the way of your fantasy, but that was a quote. Working your rest? I do not know how UP works, but BN its an offer of extra work and by taking it one reduces the opportunity for board growth and other guys to get back. Company man or union man?

there are also signs that the economy is turning around & the nation's economists are saying the recession will end by this summer, but you are blind as a bat to all that. it's not extra work I am talking about. as soon as you are rested they are calling you. last night the extra board was exhausted & they were in vacancy calling procedures.they were going to force me to step up off my assigned turn & were going to call me when I should have had another 24 hours off. I had to lay off or protect the extra board. if I wanted to work like that I would get on the extra board. if you still don't understand this let me try to explain it this way: WE HAVE TOO MUCH WORK & NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE! got it?

[amentfan322]

Originally Posted by TFB

Working your rest? I do not know how UP works, but BN its an offer of extra work and by taking it one reduces the opportunity for board growth and other guys to get back. Company man or union man?

Dude....You can't be serious! How long have you been out here? Working on your rest means that as soon as your federally mandated rest period is up, your phone is ringing for you to go right back out again! He wasn't talking about stepping up, or working out of turn.........Our guys have been working on their rest as soon as they started seriously furloughing in January. They are calling brakemen and switchmen out of the yard to work road trains because they don't have anybody......And vacations haven't even kicked in yet!

[TFB]

Originally Posted by amentfan322

Dude....You can't be serious! How long have you been out here? Working on your rest means that as soon as your federally mandated rest period is up, your phone is ringing for you to go right back out again! He wasn't talking about stepping up, or working out of turn.........Our guys have been working on their rest as soon as they started seriously furloughing in January. They are calling brakemen and switchmen out of the yard to work road trains because they don't have anybody......And vacations haven't even kicked in yet!

If you are on the xtraboard that is correct UNLESS you are on your rest days which he did say he was on thus my question. Of course, he is UP and I am BN so there might well be differences, but that is how it works here.

As far as yard guys working road trains, if they are not in the calling window they do not have to answer. We have a problem with guys here working on their rest days or taking offers of extra work that they could turn down and compel the company to add more positions. Even worse, we have had a couple of guys working off the furlough board the last couple days because they are plain stupid.

Nonetheless, this part of the country is well below where it was a year ago at this time and there are no indications it will improve any time soon. I feel for the guys that do not have the resources my family does and was a primary reason I refused the hump foreman job offered to me two nights ago on the furlough board.

[TFB]

Originally Posted by Hog&Tow

there are also signs that the economy is turning around & the nation's economists are saying the recession will end by this summer, but you are blind as a bat to all that. it's not extra work I am talking about. as soon as you are rested they are calling you. last night the extra board was exhausted & they were in vacancy calling procedures.they were going to force me to step up off my assigned turn & were going to call me when I should have had another 24 hours off. I had to lay off or protect the extra board. if I wanted to work like that I would get on the extra board. if you still don't understand this let me try to explain it this way: WE HAVE TOO MUCH WORK & NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE! got it?

Cannot wait to see you explain this one...........off the UTU site

Rail traffic plumbs bottom
If this is the bottom, U.S. railroads are dragging along it with only a small hint at climbing out of the hole, reports the Journal of Commerce.

Rail traffic in the week ending May 23 was down by large amounts in every category, compared with last year, but it did show an increase from the previous week, the Association of American Railroads said.

AAR estimated total volume at 27.4 billion ton-miles, off 20.3 percent from 2008, but up 4.6 percent from the previous week this year. Year-to-date total volume was estimated at 562 billion ton-miles, down 18.2 percent.

Carloads, intermodal volume and total ton-miles all fell further in the week than their cumulative percentage declines for the year to date.

U.S. railroads originated 259,265 cars during week 20, down 21.5 percent from the comparison week in 2008, but up 4.9 percent from the previous week this year. In comparison with last year, loadings were down 16.4 percent in the West and 28 percent in the East. The cumulative total of 5,295,843 carloads in the first 20 weeks of the year was down 19.3 percent from 2008.

All 19 carload commodity groups were down from last year, with declines ranging from 4.8 percent for farm products other than grain to 59.7 percent for metallic ores.

Key products for housing, lumber and wood products were down 45 percent.
Indicators of manufacturing activity stayed down, too. Chemicals were down 12.7 percent. Metals and products were down 58.1 percent. Waste and scrap materials were down 39.8 percent.

Intermodal volume of 188,885 trailers or containers was off 19.1 percent from last year, with container volume down 14.2 percent and trailer traffic off 37.2 percent. Intermodal volume was up 0.2 percent from the previous week this year. Year-to-date volume of 3,720,454 trailers or containers was down 16.8 percent compared with the first 20 weeks of 2008.

(The preceding article was published by the Journal of Commerce.)