Watco

[HOOK'EMHORNS]

well they cut EVERY corner they can, they only care about care count and how fast you can get the job done. The beni's are a joke we often said the closest doctor on our approved list was a vet the next town over. the power is a joke but not for a lack of the poor mechanical guys trying to keep it up and running watco cuts corners on those guys too. If you like old school railroading and run and gun switching then they can be fun to work for, but if you are coming from a class 1 LOL get ready to do some actual work for a change.

[GDLK_Engineer]

Originally Posted by Caseyjones611

I have a question for you, then. I was regular on the job that went thru Kalamazoo and picked up on our way to Elkhart up until the end of NS. We usually ended up leaving Botsford with over 130 cars regularly. My question is this. How did you guys get qualified on that territory? I never had anyone from Watco or the Grand Elk ride my train once. It just all ended for us one day and the next day your guys were running on that territory. I hold no grudges against any of you by the way, I blame the NS. So please dont think I am being angry toward you.

To be honest, a NS RFE ran us (the engineers anyway) on ONE (yes, ONE!) trip from Botsford to Elkhart. Not even to GR, but I guess they figured that since the majority of the rail from Kzoo to GR was 10, we didn't need any more rides. I wasn't comfortable with it, nor were a few others.

Also, I feel for you on how the NS screwed you guys over. I hate being non union also. I only took it because RR Unemployment was not enough and it was almost up, so I had to do something. But like I said, I do feel for what they did to you guys.

[Caseyjones611]

Originally Posted by GDLK_Engineer

To be honest, a NS RFE ran us (the engineers anyway) on ONE (yes, ONE!) trip from Botsford to Elkhart. Not even to GR, but I guess they figured that since the majority of the rail from Kzoo to GR was 10, we didn't need any more rides. I wasn't comfortable with it, nor were a few others.

Also, I feel for you on how the NS screwed you guys over. I hate being non union also. I only took it because RR Unemployment was not enough and it was almost up, so I had to do something. But like I said, I do feel for what they did to you guys.

I hear you and understand. It figures the NS was behind that. Nate's a good guy though. That being said the line from Kalamazoo to Grand Rapids can be tricky even if it is mostly 10 now especially from Shelbyville north. I guess experience will teach all of you the more you traverse it. Jake is a decent guy to work for, however I dont know if this new position will make him drunk with power. I could tell you some stories when I used to work with him when he was on the ground. Completely understand the need to get work especially in todays economy. Good luck to all of you and if you need help with anything or have any questions about that territory I would be glad to help. Know that rail like the back of my hand. --CJ611

[knuckledragger]

Originally Posted by Caseyjones611

I have a question for you, then. I was regular on the job that went thru Kalamazoo and picked up on our way to Elkhart up until the end of NS. We usually ended up leaving Botsford with over 130 cars regularly. My question is this. How did you guys get qualified on that territory? I never had anyone from Watco or the Grand Elk ride my train once. It just all ended for us one day and the next day your guys were running on that territory. I hold no grudges against any of you by the way, I blame the NS. So please dont think I am being angry toward you.

Purely speculation, but...

Some WACKO manager jumped into a hi-rail truck with an NS supervisor, got the “humina-humina” Holy Cross blessing, and started riding with crews to qualify them?

All joking aside, I heard the guys working for the GDLK were making pretty good money for a non-union outfit. And a few of them came from Class I’s as well, either for the better quality of life, or the alternative to following their seniority in Detroit.

[seatwarmer]

I worked for the SKOL in OK/KS for almost two years (transferred from another Wacko operation before that). When I first transferred, most of the mainline was 25mph with 6-8 slow orders over a 97 mile territory. When they canned me this summer there was only 9 miles of 25 mph; everything else was 10..and some of that was too fast considering the way the motors bounced around on it. I need to point out that I'm grateful to the company because they gave me the chance to go railroading several years ago when no other railroad would give me the time of day. But if I knew just how hard they were going to screw me over I would have stayed in a truck. The terminal I was at went through 4 managers the 2 years I was working out of it....two of which were total and complete flakes; one of them had to be on some serous dope. Before the new HoS rules went into effect, it wasn't uncommon to get phone calls in the middle of the day (I was working a night job) telling us when to come in. I'm not talking about 2 hr call, talking it's noon-1300 and he's saying be at the depot at 1900. I finally started calling this one jerk in the middle of the night to tell him when I thought the train would be at next terminal...making sure I got him good and awake. I guess he got the idea...he quit calling me. Some of the power we had was total junk the NS tossed 15 years ago...yet they keep running at Watco. Other power was from the UP and it was reasonably good most of the time.

Something that seems to be common on Wacko roads is the buddy-buddy attituide; if your buddies with the manager at the terminal you work out of...everything is rosey. But if you not, your life is a living hell. Yes, when I first became an engineer I was buddies with the ATM at the terminal I was working out of. And since I was away from home...I preferred to work as much as possible; this ATM made sure I was flipping out on my rest, and I was happy that way. He went up to bat for me on a derailment that was track related...even though the the entire MoW department was saying it was poor train handling; it was pinned on me at first...but after a GM change it was removed from my records. When this ATM was fired (he didn't play well with other managers) my working life started to get worse. Toward the end of my time on the SKOL, I was routinely stopped tested, bird-dogged, gunned my management with a radar gun, and harassed by the local FRA operations guy. Though I think the reason the FRA man was hounding us was he was after the company and I just happened to be the lucky sap he caught each time. I'm not saying don't work for them...but have your eyes open and be ready to get a load of crap for the work you do.

[Snowman]

Watco took over our shortline a while back. Life is definitely worse on Watco. I was on the BNSF for nearly 6 years before I came to the shortline lifestyle. I have actually been wishing I wouldn't have quit BNSF since Watco came to town and took over. They are all about saving money at all costs. They run the crews as small as possible even if that means falling behind. They lay us off one day a week to keep us from getting overtime. Upper management talks up everything we get but when we really see it, its crap. We are still waiting for a lot of the promised improvements. They don't really get how to operate a railroad. From what I have seen the FRA and local utility commission don't like them. The old shortline just got warnings or "suggestions" that needed to be fixed, now Watco gets citations or other violations for everything it seems.

[knuckledragger]

Originally Posted by Snowman

Watco took over our shortline a while back. Life is definitely worse on Watco. I was on the BNSF for nearly 6 years before I came to the shortline lifestyle. I have actually been wishing I wouldn't have quit BNSF since Watco came to town and took over. They are all about saving money at all costs. They run the crews as small as possible even if that means falling behind. They lay us off one day a week to keep us from getting overtime. Upper management talks up everything we get but when we really see it, its crap. We are still waiting for a lot of the promised improvements. They don't really get how to operate a railroad. From what I have seen the FRA and local utility commission don't like them. The old shortline just got warnings or "suggestions" that needed to be fixed, now Watco gets citations or other violations for everything it seems.

WATCO has a horrible reputation all-around it seems. The only people who like them, or put up with them are those who are too ignorant or lazy to realize what they could have, or those who are just happy to have a job.

I’ve heard my share of horror stories, and I wish that someone didn’t drop the ball. Rumors abound as to it’s demise, but there was a GREAT labor-related website called www.watcocompanies.org that duplicated much of the corporate website, just replaced the homepage links with “greed”, “welfare” and other such moniker.

I could have sworn that I just read on the NMB yesterday that the 40 T&E employees on the K&O are trying to vote into the UTU. It seems that WATCO is getting the tables turned on them, biting more than they can chew on the larger operations. The K&O was the old Central Kansas Ry., and I think they were in the union prior to WATCO taking over.

Fear not, however, RailGenerica does the same thing. Our trainmasters would routinely run around a man on the XB just so he wouldn’t get OT. Or worse yet, they’d knock a regular job off 1-day per week (but rarely our Friday) and put an XB crew on so we didn’t make OT after 40. Keep in mind, railroads are exempt from paying overtime unless it’s part of your CBA.

I suggest that if/when you guys ever decide to vote the union in & you’re able to do so without the duress of losing your job - get your overtime after 8. That way, in reality, with three 12’s, you just made the equivalent of 42 hours straight time. Anything more is a bonus, but your overtime will kick in after 8 on every shift. If you work five 12’s, nothing lost. It’s when you work six 12’s that you start losing money in comparison. However, with the new FRA HOS rules in place, six 12’s could entitle you to 2 days off.

Of course, if you know & feel like you’re getting kicked around like a dog & treated like crap on your operation - it’s the labor’s fault for not trying to better their lifestyle by voting union, IMO.

Best of luck!

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by knuckledragger

WATCO has a horrible reputation all-around it seems. The only people who like them, or put up with them are those who are too ignorant or lazy to realize what they could have, or those who are just happy to have a job.

I’ve heard my share of horror stories, and I wish that someone didn’t drop the ball. Rumors abound as to it’s demise, but there was a GREAT labor-related website called www.watcocompanies.org that duplicated much of the corporate website, just replaced the homepage links with “greed”, “welfare” and other such moniker.

I could have sworn that I just read on the NMB yesterday that the 40 T&E employees on the K&O are trying to vote into the UTU. It seems that WATCO is getting the tables turned on them, biting more than they can chew on the larger operations. The K&O was the old Central Kansas Ry., and I think they were in the union prior to WATCO taking over.

Fear not, however, RailGenerica does the same thing. Our trainmasters would routinely run around a man on the XB just so he wouldn’t get OT. Or worse yet, they’d knock a regular job off 1-day per week (but rarely our Friday) and put an XB crew on so we didn’t make OT after 40. Keep in mind, railroads are exempt from paying overtime unless it’s part of your CBA.

I suggest that if/when you guys ever decide to vote the union in & you’re able to do so without the duress of losing your job - get your overtime after 8. That way, in reality, with three 12’s, you just made the equivalent of 42 hours straight time. Anything more is a bonus, but your overtime will kick in after 8 on every shift. If you work five 12’s, nothing lost. It’s when you work six 12’s that you start losing money in comparison. However, with the new FRA HOS rules in place, six 12’s could entitle you to 2 days off.

Of course, if you know & feel like you’re getting kicked around like a dog & treated like crap on your operation - it’s the labor’s fault for not trying to better their lifestyle by voting union, IMO.

Best of luck!

I agree with all that you have said. They took over our railroad thinking it was a small wooden axle operations and that is how they plan to operate it. We handle between 100-200 cars a week and they don't all go to one customer. The biggest customer (car count wise) we have only takes 15 cars at a time, one switch a week. We are all fighting a lot of what they tell us but unfortunately I am basically the only one with more than 2 years of railroad experience, that includes our manager. I would be all for going union but right now we are able to get some changes done with out a problem so everyone else thinks all is good.

The overtime issue is going to become a big fighting point in the future I am sure. We have always been just 5 days a week, Mon-Fri. Back on the old railroad we have full crews and usually only worked 8 hour days. Right now because we have so few guys we get over 40 hours a week in 4 days, they are long days. It wears a person out. They try to make it better by giving us an assigned day off (but still on call) one day a week. It is nice to use that day as a rest day.

[knuckledragger]

Originally Posted by Snowman

I agree with all that you have said. They took over our railroad thinking it was a small wooden axle operations and that is how they plan to operate it.

I honestly don’t believe that part at all, nothing personal. They bought your line, like any other piece of railroad, because IT IS profitable. They just planned to max their profit margin by running said profitable operation on a shoestring budget, starting with the labor. I’d almost be surprised if WACkO didn’t come in with a pay cut.

Why the previous operator ditched it is beyond me. They still have two other pieces of railroad that I’m aware of, so they didn’t sell out completely.

We handle between 100-200 cars a week and they don't all go to one customer. The biggest customer (car count wise) we have only takes 15 cars at a time, one switch a week. We are all fighting a lot of what they tell us but unfortunately I am basically the only one with more than 2 years of railroad experience, that includes our manager. I would be all for going union but right now we are able to get some changes done with out a problem so everyone else thinks all is good.

I imagine you don’t have more than 4-6 people in T&E. Smaller companies have organized (Louisiana & North West comes to mind). I don’t know the proper channels or procedure for going union myself, but make sure you do it quietly. There have been known instances where WACkO has tried to manipulate workers against unionizing:

http://www.nmb.gov/representation/deter2006/33n024.pdf (good read, BTW)

The overtime issue is going to become a big fighting point in the future I am sure. We have always been just 5 days a week, Mon-Fri. Back on the old railroad we have full crews and usually only worked 8 hour days. Right now because we have so few guys we get over 40 hours a week in 4 days, they are long days. It wears a person out. They try to make it better by giving us an assigned day off (but still on call) one day a week. It is nice to use that day as a rest day.

WACkO is full of false promises, you will need a binding agreement in writing. Something they must honor & can’t change for a couple of years, IMO.

The hardest part about any agreement is the language. Too many companies make/find loopholes in CBA’s to screw the labor out of what their entitled to. Our agreement is like that, because it was organized by morons & signed off upon by inexperienced labor. 4 years later, they now see how bad it really can be...and 4 years later, they’re none the wiser except for the handful of experienced labor who has hired on & knows what they want.

The only change they can come up with is that they want OT after 8, and $21-22 per hour. That’s sad, IMO.

One stubborn Class I guy revels in the idea of thru-terminal penalties because he only wants a 4-hour run on our grain trains. That’s not going to happen because every one of those trains would be payable, simply because the company isn’t going to pay a 3rd crew to handle the trains between A and B.

Although, in your defense, I’d gladly take four 10’s, OT after that....IF I knew that was going to be the end of my workweek. Cutting you off, or placing you on a virtual XB / reserve board ONLY because they need you is bullshit. Either I’m working today, or I have the day off.