Not bad pay if you can get it! Seen in the Wall Street Journal, singing bonuses of up to $25,000 are being offered.
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LaramieJoe posted:Not bad pay if you can get it! Seen in the Wall Street Journal, singing bonuses of up to $25,000 are being offered.
The article requires a "sign-in" in order to read the whole thing. At any rate, I know one of the places UP needs people is North Platte, Nebraska, and BNSF might still be needing people at Alliance, Nebraska. Having had to work at both places, plus Gillette, and Guernsey, WY, in my opinion the $25,000 "bonus" to move & reside in any of those towns isn't worth it.
Hot Water posted:LaramieJoe posted:Not bad pay if you can get it! Seen in the Wall Street Journal, singing bonuses of up to $25,000 are being offered.
The article requires a "sign-in" in order to read the whole thing. At any rate, I know one of the places UP needs people is North Platte, Nebraska, and BNSF might still be needing people at Alliance, Nebraska. Having had to work at both places, plus Gillette, and Guernsey, WY, in my opinion the $25,000 "bonus" to move & reside in any of those towns isn't worth it.
Yes, sorry about that. The gist of the whole thing is there in the first few paragraphs. I'll copy and paste separately.
Totally agree about not wanting to live in those places. I live in Laramie and even here, it would be "barely" worth it.
From the WSJ: Railroad workers are being offered signing bonuses of up to $25,000 to join BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Corp. as the freight railroads struggle to fill jobs in a historically tight labor market.
BNSF and Union Pacific are hauling more products across the Western U.S., where their networks are based, and trying to ease congestion in areas with high demand. Freight volumes are rising on strong economic growth and industrial expansion, and a shortage of available truck capacity is pushing more shipments onto rails.
At the same time, the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1% in the U.S., and as low as 2.8% in some markets where railroads are hiring. In response, the companies are dangling incentives that analysts and union leaders say are the highest they can recall.
Union Pacific is offering $10,000 to $20,000 “hiring incentives” to train crews in cities like Denver, Kansas City, Mo., and North Platte, Neb., where its largest rail yard is located. Those jobs average $40,000 in pay over the first year and $60,000 the next, according to job listings.
Electricians to inspect, repair and maintain locomotives are being wooed with $25,000 signing bonuses to Union Pacific locations outside Milwaukee; in Hinkle, Ore., a three-hour drive from Portland; and elsewhere. A Union Pacific spokeswoman said the hiring bonuses are for certain positions in “tight labor markets.”
BNSF, owned by Berkshire Hathaway Inc., has hiring incentives starting at $15,000 for some new hires, according to a document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
A BNSF spokeswoman said the railroad is facing a talent shortage across its system and is extending the offer to diesel mechanics, electricians and conductor trainees. “We are constantly evaluating the market and will use this approach when it makes sense to recruit talented individuals for hard to fill positions or locations,” spokeswoman Amy Casas said.
The jobs can be demanding, with irregular work schedules, long hours and frequent nights away from home. “This is a tough lifestyle,” said Jason Kuehn, a vice president at consulting firm Oliver Wyman who focuses on transportation. “It’s a very unforgiving work environment.”
For those willing to endure it, the pay is good. The median Union Pacific employee—a locomotive engineer—made nearly $83,000 in total compensation in 2017, according to a company securities filing. Health-care and retirement benefits, including a pension, are also fairly generous. One catch is that the bonuses are paid out over time, after meeting certain milestones, like completing training or one year of service. And they lock in workers to the location for around three years. If workers leave or are terminated for cause before that, they have to pay back the full amount.
Credit Suisse transportation analyst Allison Landry said she doesn’t recall any time in recent years when railroads were struggling to hire enough workers. “It highlights how the current broader labor backdrop is perhaps something the U.S. hasn’t seen in many, many years,” she said.
Other transportation sectors face similar pressures. Wages and benefits are rising for truck drivers, who also work long hours and often spend weeks at a time on the road. Trucking companies experiencing strong freight demand are dangling bonuses and other incentives to recruit and retain drivers. Last year, the median salary for long-haul truckload drivers working irregular routes was about $53,000, up 15% compared with 2013, according to the American Trucking Associations, an industry group.
BNSF and Union Pacific had furloughed thousands of workers just a few years ago, as demand for coal and other products slumped. But now that economic activity has picked up, both have recalled nearly their entire furloughed workforces and are hiring rapidly. BNSF plans to hire 2,000 train, engine and yard, or TE&Y, workers, who operate and build trains, among other tasks, this year. That is an 11.4% increase from current head count of 17,500 such workers, the company said in a recent letter to federal regulators.
Union Pacific is adding at least 2,100 TE&Y workers but so far has been falling short, Chief Executive Lance Fritz said in a recent letter to regulators. In addition to signing bonuses for new workers, the Omaha, Neb.-based company is offering retention bonuses to older workers considering retirement and looking at other ways to boost its ranks. It also is planning to hire nearly 900 mechanical and engineer employees this year. Overall, Union Pacific had about 42,000 employees at the start of the year.
The hiring bonuses aren’t happening on the large freight railroads east of the Mississippi River, where companies say there is slack in the railroad hiring pool.
My NS rep told me this morning they have instituted a “no furlough” policy. It costs something around $74,000 to recruit, hire and train a new conductor and when the new guys are furloughed; they quickly lose interest in railroad employment and find other work; refusing the recall when NS wants them back. Apparently management has decided it’s cheaper to pay crews to do nothing than have to continually go through hire/train/furlough cycles.
I recollect UP had something similar for T&E personnel back during the recession in 2008. Crewmen were given just enough work each month to retain qualification over their assigned territory and were able to retain their health benefits.
Curt
I get the "no furlough policy," boy howdy. We stopped doing it at Xerox years ago for precisely the same reasons.
Transportation industry workers are subject to random drug tests. That reduces the labor pool. John in Lansing, ILL
rattler21 posted:Transportation industry workers are subject to random drug tests. That reduces the labor pool. John in Lansing, ILL
Not only "random", but even as part of ones job application process, you will be tested, or you will not even be hired. I remember an incident quit some years ago, when the UP was about to hire LOTS of people for Conductors & Engineers, out of Denver. All the job applicants were pre-screened and interviewed by some organization in Colorado. At the prescribed date and time, some 350 prospective employees showed up at an auditorium for all the preliminaries and orientation talks. Right up from, the UP Personnel folks explained the "drug free work environment" and the drug testing process. During the first coffee break (after about an hour and a half), over 100 people did NOT return to the auditorium for continued orientation! The drug testing obviously scared them off.
Such is the world of trying to hire people into the railroad industry today.
It is generally accepted there is a shortage of 12,500 truck drivers in the Chicago area. Far more than that number of able bodied male citizens in Cook County on unemployment, food stamps, and Section 8 programs are sitting at home. Too bad they don't have to pass a drug test. John
rattler21 posted:It is generally accepted there is a shortage of 12,500 truck drivers in the Chicago area. Far more than that number of able bodied male citizens in Cook County on unemployment, food stamps, and Section 8 programs are sitting at home. ...
Sickening, isn't it? I'm fed up.
Anyway, many employers, in many fields, are giving drug tests ….. background checks, too. At my place, even when folks are to be promoted into a position of more responsibility, another background check is performed.
EBT Jim posted:rattler21 posted:It is generally accepted there is a shortage of 12,500 truck drivers in the Chicago area. Far more than that number of able bodied male citizens in Cook County on unemployment, food stamps, and Section 8 programs are sitting at home. ...
Sickening, isn't it? I'm fed up.
Anyway, many employers, in many fields, are giving drug tests ….. background checks, too. At my place, even when folks are to be promoted into a position of more responsibility, another background check is performed.
I think it is a lot more involved than just drug testing. It is my understanding that the state of Illinois has more people on well fair type programs than there are actually working! Thus, why would ANY of those folks want to go to work, when they are already receiving free money?
Hot Water posted:EBT Jim posted:rattler21 posted:It is generally accepted there is a shortage of 12,500 truck drivers in the Chicago area. Far more than that number of able bodied male citizens in Cook County on unemployment, food stamps, and Section 8 programs are sitting at home. ...
Sickening, isn't it? I'm fed up.
Anyway, many employers, in many fields, are giving drug tests ….. background checks, too. At my place, even when folks are to be promoted into a position of more responsibility, another background check is performed.
I think it is a lot more involved than just drug testing. It is my understanding that the state of Illinois has more people on well fair type programs than there are actually working! Thus, why would ANY of those folks want to go to work, when they are already receiving free money?
Like many of these types of comments, this is completely incorrect. See Fact Check. The Illinois story, for example, is completely false; it was based on a gross misinterpretation of a story in Forbes magazine several years ago, and that false rumor hit the internet. Essentially an urban legend. Some people buy into stuff like this that has no basis in truth, when they have preconceived notions about things. They may try to find justification for their belief set, and don't bother to see if those "justifications" are really true. They just want to confirm their misconceptions. To some degree, it's human nature to want to justify our beliefs and ignore facts that are contrary to those beliefs. It requires an open mind to combat this.
Illinois has approximately 5,727,400 people working. It has approximately 99,843 people on welfare. That's only 1 in 57. Also, in Illinois, welfare pays less than minimum wage. Which is, of course, not anywhere near a living wage. No one really wants to be on welfare, and live like that, if they can help it.
Hot Water posted:The article requires a "sign-in" in order to read the whole thing. At any rate, I know one of the places UP needs people is North Platte, Nebraska, and BNSF might still be needing people at Alliance, Nebraska. Having had to work at both places, plus Gillette, and Guernsey, WY, in my opinion the $25,000 "bonus" to move & reside in any of those towns isn't worth it.
Depends on your lifestyle. If you are an outdoors person--like to hunt, fish, camp, etc. or really dislike the crime and congestion of big cities, those are great places to live and raise a family. Gillette is close to some world class camping/hiking spots such as the Black Hills and even Yellowstone NP. Taxes are very low in Nebraska, and there are no income taxes at all in Wyoming. Housing is very affordable and the unemployment rate is somewhere around 2.5%. Finally, neither state suffers any from "political correctness."
Kent in SD
At BNSF, for pre-employment drug testing, they do a hair snip test. Some try to beat this by shaving their head. The railroad offers an alternative, body hair snip (you know where). If they say that they are also shaved there, then they cannot participate in pre-employment hair snip drug testing (mandatory for every applicant) and are thanked for their time and invited to apply in the future if they can provide hair.
Didn't take too long for this one to go political....topic closed.
