By Associated Press
BNSF laid off more than 360 mechanical employees this week — just days after Warren Buffett told shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate that owns the railroad that he was disappointed in BNSF's profits — though that railroad said it is simply trying to shift workers to its busiest terminals. Union Pacific has also laid off several hundred workers since it named Jim Vena CEO last summer after a hedge fund pressured the railroad to change management. UP says most of those cuts were a normal seasonal move when major construction projects typically slow down because of winter.
The BNSF layoffs prompted a letter from the Transportation Trades Department labor coalition urging the Federal Railroad Administrator to step up inspections because unions believe these latest cuts — even though they are relatively small compared to the railroad's more than 37,000 workers — will make it even harder for the railroad to complete required repairs and inspect its locomotives and railcars.
“BNSF workers are being pushed beyond capacity, and with these additional cuts, there is grave concern that there will be additional lapses in safety,” the unions wrote. “We are seeing this verified in real time with exhausting and unsafe overtime mandates. It is time to stop the scheme that puts profits above all else.”
The head of the nation's largest rail union, Jeremy Ferguson, added to those concerns in his own letter calling out Buffett's pursuit of profits at worker expense. Ferguson, who leads SMART-TD, said instead of working “harder to grow, to earn new business or expand its relationships with the customers they have” BNSF is taking the easy route to improve the bottom line by “handing out pink slips and furloughs because the executives and shareholders must get theirs first and foremost."
BNSF spokeswoman Kendall Sloan said the railroad's furloughs weren't a widespread effort to cut costs. Instead, they should simply help the railroad ensure it has enough workers in areas where volume is growing across its network that crosses the western United States if workers accept incentives to move into other jobs.
“We believe any presumption that BNSF is shifting its priority away from safety is inaccurate," Sloan said. "We consider safety in every decision we make.”
Amit Bose, who leads the Federal Railroad Administration, said Union Pacific's furloughs since Vena took over “makes me question UP’s commitment to safety.”
But Vena responded in a letter of his own Friday that “Union Pacific will never compromise the safety of our employees or of the communities where we operate.” He said Bose's comments were misleading because he lumped together seasonal track worker layoffs with the furloughs of less than 100 mechanical workers last fall after shipping volume slowed.
The latest federal safety statistics for all of 2023 released Friday are mixed with the number of derailments nationwide dipping slightly while the rate of accidents along the main tracks between crossings increased 8%. But Association of American Railroads spokeswoman Jessica Kahanek said the trade group believes the “data clearly demonstrate a positive trendline” even though there is still need for improvement.