Amtrak Plans to Furlough Workers

Amtrak plans to furlough 1,950 unionized workers in federal fiscal year 2021, which begins on Oct. 1.

Trains magazine reported that the intercity passenger carrier also plans to end 100 management jobs.

Most of those being furloughed are on-board service employees who will no longer be needed after Amtrak reduces the frequency of most long-distance trains to tri-weekly in October.

Those 698 workers are represented by the Amtrak Service Workers Council.

Other planned furloughs include 509 employees represented by SMART-TD, 390 workers represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, 326 employees represented by the Transportation Communications Union, and 27 employees represented by the American Railway and Airway Supervisors Association.

Those employees are based in Los Angeles (236 workers), Chicago (171 workers) and Seattle (129) among other cities.

Amtrak said the furloughs could increase or decrease by as much as 2 percent once its operating plan is worked out.

The furloughed workers will continue to receive medical benefits paid by Amtrak until they are recalled or through Sept. 30, 2021, if they are not.

Managers who are being laid off are to be notified on Sept. 16.

Earlier this year Amtrak offered voluntary buyouts as part of an effort to reduce its workforce by 20 percent.

It warned at that time that involuntary furloughs would be imposed to make up the difference between the number of involuntary buyouts and the number of workers that the carrier wanted to reach.

Amtrak Seeking Retirement Volunteers as First Step Toward Reducing its Workforce by 20%

An Amtrak employee advisory posted on a railfan chat list shows that the passenger carrier plans to offer employees a buyout package in June and July in an effort to cut its payroll.

The memo reiterated a point that Amtrak President William Flynn made in a letter to Congress last week that the passenger carrier plans to trim its workforce for 20 percent in anticipation of large revenues losses over the next several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

If not enough employees take the buyout, the memo warns, the company will resort to furloughs.

A retirement incentive is being offered to employees eligible under Railroad Retirement Board rules for retirement by Dec. 31, 2020, who are in active service on June 19, 2020, holding positions at locations where the company does not see operational needs.

Those employees should submit an irrevocable application between June 1-19 and will receive a notification by July 10.

Those granted a retirement will receive their individual compensation and departure date at that time but they are expected to leave Amtrak by July 24.

Those not eligible for retirement by July 24, but who will be eligible by Dec. 31, 2020, and those who can receive an increased retirement benefit if they work between August and Dec 31, 2020, can request a “bridge” under this program to be eligible for those additional service months.

Those workers will stop reporting to work as of July 24, 2020, but will remain active employees and receive their payout as a dismissal allowance, payable in increments until their retirement date, which must be prior to December 31, 2020.

The memo said furloughs will be implemented after Oct. 1, the day that fiscal year 2021 begins.

It said management will determine furloughs based on the carrier’s projected operating plan and its needed staffing levels.

Those covered by union contracts will have their employment benefits continued for four months after the date of furlough.

“To this point, Amtrak has made the policy decision that any [union] agreement employee who is involuntarily furloughed between October 1 and December 31, 2020, will have their benefits continued until September 30, 2021 at Amtrak’s expense,” the memo said.

Amtrak Planning to Cut Size of its Police Force

The labor union representing Amtrak police officers is warning that the passenger carrier intends to cut the force by 20 percent over the next three years.

The union said Amtrak Police Chief Neil Trugman told it that the force would be reduced from 452 to 369 by 2022.

The reduction will apparently be achieved through attrition and no layoffs are being planned.

However, William Gonzalez, president of Amtrak’s Fraternal Order of Police, said that retirements alone will not enable the carrier to reach its stated goal.

He also said the staff cuts “will jeopardize the safety and security for the passengers and employees.”

An Amtrak spokesman said the company is “currently evaluating the deployment of our Amtrak Police Department staff to ensure we have appropriate staffing levels for the safety and security of our customers as employees.”

The spokesman said Amtrak expects, though to increase the presence of officers on board trains.

Waiting on Passengers in Sacramento

It’s a warm July afternoon in 1999 at the Amtrak station in Sacramento, California.

Train No. 6 has halted and large crowds of people are scurrying about the platform to board their train, which will in two days arrive in Chicago.

Ahead lies some of the best scenery Amtrak has to offer in the American West.

Toward the rear of the train I noticed this car attendant standing by himself watching the boarding going on a few cars down.

The California Zephyr will board numerous coach passengers in Sacramento so it will be a matter of moments before he is helping them aboard.

Although 1999 doesn’t seem like it was that long ago, it’s been more than 19 years since I made this image.

The attire of car attendants has changed since then and Amtrak no longer emblazons the word “Superliner” above the entryways to those cars.

I have no idea who this guy is, but I do wonder if he still works for Amtrak.

 

Amtrak OIG Report Seeks Better Workload Management

Amtrak’s Office of Inspector General has recommended that the company save money by adjusting workloads and staffing, and better managing overtime.

The recommendations were made in an audit released earlier this month that estimated that Amtrak could put an estimated $2.3 million to $6.4 million to better use.

The audit focused on 62 locations where Amtrak services and inspects trains.

Those sites include 12 preventative maintenance facilities and 50 smaller outlying sites that service trains between runs.

It is the latter that occupied most of the attention of the recent OIG report because they offer the greatest opportunity for cost cutting.

These sites perform such Federal Railroad Administration-required safety inspections as cab signal tests, brake tests and interior and exterior inspections.

Workers also clean restrooms and café cars, wash windows, vacuum the cars, pump waste from toilets and replenish cars with potable water.

This work is done by Amtrak employees at 16 sites while contract employees work at 34 sites.

The OIG concluded that some work performed at facilities in Michigan and Missouri could be done at Amtrak’s service facilities in Chicago.

The audit found that schedules for several trains that originate or terminate in Chicago find the equipment assigned to them laying over in Chicago every 24 hours.

Chicago maintenance workers are already responsible for cleaning trains and have the capacity to conduct the FRA-mandated safety inspections.

Although the Michigan and Missouri sites may still be needed for train cleaning, the OIG said a minimized workload would enable staffing adjustments for service and inspections.

The OIG also singled out potential savings opportunities at 11 other maintenance facilities that, depending on the amount of additional inspection work that could be performed, could result in a better use of $1.4 million to $3.9 million.

The OIG audit found that employees worked standard eight-hour shifts even though the sites did not have enough service and inspection work to fill a full shift.

The audit quoted Amtrak managers as saying that staffing levels were based on a historical preference to ensure that sites had a full complement of staff to quickly mitigate incidents that might arise at a site or along a train’s route.

This resulted in inefficiencies, the OIG report said.

Likewise, the OIG found that at four of Amtrak’s 16 major service and inspection sites, there is not enough service and inspection work to fill an eight-hour shift.

Overtime payments above base wages ranged from 11 percent to 38 percent per employee at the sites. Managers at some sites did not know why or how much overtime their employees were earning.

Managers were unable to manage employee overtime or ensure that overtime was necessary.

Better management of overtime could result in an estimated $900,000 to $2.4 million being put to better use.

In a statement, Amtrak officials agreed to implement all of the OIG recommendations contained in the audit.

Amtrak Among Top Employers of Veterans

Military Times has named Amtrak one of the county’s top 100 employers for veterans.

In a news release, Amtrak said the annual ranking highlight a corporate culture and policies that best leverage the traits and skills embodied by veterans and servicemen and women to enable them to be successful in civilian roles.

The publication invited companies to complete a 100-question survey and checked the accuracy of the results.

Amtrak said about one in five of its employees is a veteran or active members of the U.S. Armed Forces, National Guard and Reserves.

The rail passenger carrier also offers an Amtrak for Veterans employee affinity group that supports current and former military members through fellowship, mentoring and community outreach.

Woman Says Amtrak Agent Told Her to Remove Pin

Amtrak has apologized to a Chicago woman who claims that an Amtrak gate agent told her to remove a “love trumps hate” button before boarding a train to Seattle last Friday.

In issuing the apology, Amtrak said its employee misinterpreted a company policy.

The incident came to light after Melissa Stone wrote about it on Twitter.

She said the Amtrak agent told her that because the passenger carrier is “federally funded,” that Stone would have to remove the pin or “stay in her cabin” during her trip.

Stone said an Amtrak manager confirmed that the action of the Amtrak agent wasn’t proper.

In a facebook post, Stone said she and her partner, Chase McClure, were traveling to Seattle to celebrate their 10^th anniversary.

She said the agent said Amtrak asks passengers to remove such pins to prevent fights from breaking out on trains.

McClure also weighed in on the dust-up on social media, saying she would be just as angry if the agent had asked another passenger to remove a “Make America Great Again” hat, which is commonly worn by supporters of President Donald Trump

“Love trumps hate” was a slogan used by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and continues to be used by some who dislike Trump.

Moorman Writes to Amtrak Employees

Charles “Wick” Moorman became president of Amtrak on Thursday, Sept. 1, 2016. He wrote the following letter to Amtrak employees. Make of it what you will.

Wick Moorman

My name is Wick Moorman and it is a pleasure and a privilege for me to be joining you as your new CEO.

I want to start my time at Amtrak by saying how honored I am to follow Joe Boardman. I’ve known Joe for many years, and his work at Amtrak and FRA has left us a strong and useful legacy to build on. During his eight years in leading the company, Amtrak delivered record ridership and revenue levels, while making critical investments in our assets and our people to prepare for future growth. That success is a testament to the strength of the entire Amtrak team, and to Joe’s commitment to leaving Amtrak stronger than when he arrived. That’s what I hope to accomplish myself as your new CEO, as we work together to make Amtrak a safer, more efficient, and modern company, that’s growing our business and delivering increasing value to our customers and the nation.

Let me tell you a little bit about myself, and why I have chosen to come to Amtrak.

The first thing you should know about me is that I am a life-long railroader, and from childhood I have been fascinated by the technology and romance of our business. After high school, I studied civil engineering at Georgia Tech and was fortunate enough to obtain an engineering co-op position with the Southern Railway, one of Norfolk Southern’s predecessors. Upon graduation from Tech, I joined Southern full-time as a management trainee in the Maintenance of Way department, where I was first put to work on a track gang to ensure that I knew the railroad from the ground up! It was a great way to start, and for the first 12 years of my career I worked in Southern and then Norfolk Southern’s Maintenance of Way department as a track supervisor and then as a division engineer.

Those years served as a wonderful foundation for my over four-decade career with Norfolk Southern. After a brief stint in business school, Norfolk Southern gave me the opportunity to work in transportation, human resources, labor relations, IT and strategic planning. These experiences helped me to understand what it truly takes to run a great railroad and prepared me to become Norfolk Southern’s CEO in 2005. Over the next 10 years, our company went through a period of significant change. Together, we continued to improve our safety culture. We introduced new technology and found new ways to become more efficient. And we completed several rail corridor projects that would help us grow our service capabilities and revenue levels for a long time to come.

I retired quite happily last year, with no intentions of working full-time again, but then was approached about the possibility of leading Amtrak. I started my career in the summer of 1970, not long before Amtrak started to operate. It is not an exaggeration to say I have followed Amtrak since Day One – and while my background is in freight, I have a deep appreciation for passenger rail and have ridden passenger trains all my life. Amtrak provides a great and necessary public service. It keeps people moving and businesses strong in the Northeast Corridor, and it provides connectivity and mobility to 46 of the 48 contiguous states throughout our National Network. Furthermore, as our country’s transportation needs continue to change and grow, there is more and more public interest in passenger rail service everywhere. Together, we can continue to transform Amtrak. We can expand and grow our company in ways that will help us meet these new demands, and make Amtrak the leading rail passenger carrier worldwide.

As I have talked to people over the years about my life and career, I have always stressed how extraordinarily fortunate and blessed I have been! The opportunity to become CEO of Amtrak is another chapter in that story of great good fortune, and I am excited to be starting today.

My immediate priority in the next 60 days as I transition into the new role is to spend time with the leadership team and to get out and see as many of you as I can, in order to get a better understanding of what we do, and how we do it. I also encourage all of you to let me know your thoughts on what we can do together to improve the company.

I will be communicating more with you as we close out fiscal year 2016 and kick-off fiscal year 2017. For now, thanks for everything you’re doing to keep Amtrak rolling, and I look forward to seeing you somewhere out on the railroad.

Sincerely,
Wick Moorman