One-person crew proposal rejected on BNSF
Written by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
BNSF Railway conductors and ground-service workers represented by General Committee GO-001 of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air and Rail Transportation Workers (SMART, formerly the United Transportation Union) have rejected a proposal to allow freight trains equipped with Positive Train Control (PTC) to operate as early as next year with a lone engineer in the cab and no conventional on-board conductor between specific territories in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest.
The agreement, which would have applied to roughly 3,000 BNSF workers across several western states, would have provided improved pay and benefits plus full-blanket furlough protection to all affected ground service workers in exchange for an amended crew consist agreement to be phased in over two years, beginning Jan. 1, 2015. It would also have permitted trains now requiring a brakeman or helper to be operated with a minimum of one on-board conductor or one yard foreman. For hybrid yard service, where the locomotive is operated by remote control beltpacks and on-board controls during the same tour of duty, the minimum crew would have been one foreman and one helper—one qualified to operate on-board locomotive controls. Through freights not having operational PTC or hauling hazardous materials would have continued to require a minimum of one conductor and an engineer. Ground service workers, in addition to conductors, include brakemen, helpers, switchmen, and yardmen; all are subject to promotion to conductor.
A message GO-001 officials sent late Wednesday to members informing them of the proposal’s failure said that detailed results would be available within the next few weeks, and that the committee would remain open to “informal conversation” with BNSF.
