New to UPRR, question about borrowing out...

Hey All,
New to the forum just had a few questions specific to Union Pacific and was hoping you all could help me out. My husband is a new conductor with UP and as I am sure you know they are "furloughing" alot of the new guys. My husband has two more runs to make and he will be marked up as a conductor. The problem is everyone in his group is going to the bump board and I'm sure you all know, you have 48 hours to find somewhere to go to work or you are layed off. My question is does anyone know how to get to the borrowed out board. No one in this area has ever done it because Salem has always done the borrowing. We know that other areas are still hiring so we thought he could borrow out to one of those areas until some guys start retiring around here. Any advise? We also heard that the conductors union is not allowing them to be borrowed. Is this possible? Who decides who can go borrowed out and who can't? My husband just wants to work and he doesn't care where it is. Any info on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

In order to borrow out CMS needs to advertise for such. When they are advertised the borrowing out for the most part is done by those guys who have seniority under their belts. You can however call CMS and ask to speak to the person in charge of Manpower for your husbands area and see if there is a need for manpower elsewhere. The only caveat to that is most of the time since your volunteering the move, you'll be on your own as far as expenses go. Good luck.

Most times, they will advertise for borrow outs via bulletin. It depends on the need, and what agreement is in place. I cannot imagine Salem needing to furlough as the coal to S. IL has been busy. Be that as it may.

There is still hiring going on in Boone, Iowa, and Proviso (Chicago). Unlike other areas of the UP, which will see furloughed people The Overland Route to Chicago, and St. Louis will not as so far. We have four borrow outs from Kansas City in our terminal. Word is, they will not be leaving any time soon despite our hiring more trainmen in the past few years.

I know there are borrow outs in St. James, MN; Ft. Madison, IA; St. Paul, MN; and rumors are there were some in Proviso.

My advice? Have him first talk to his local chairman, then CMS. I wish him well.

There are now borrowouts in Chicago. They actually are setting back few engineers cause its just to slow and dont want to pay all that guarntee.

Thanks for the info. As soon as he gets home I'll have him call CMS. Where do they advertise the borrow out? Someone said they send out a bulletin...via what? UPRR employee site? One other question, how do find out if there is room for you on other boards within your hub? I know the boards all have different numbers and such, so where do you get those from? My husband's superiors act as clueless as him. Call CMS? I'm sorry to keep asking questions but I hate to see him layed off. He's never been layed off or out of work in his life. We were prepared for this though, we have family whose been with the railroad for 20+ years, so we knew this would probably happen. Just trying to keep him working. I can't imagin the two of us together 24/7 for months on end...

Well now we are getting into specifics I don't think I want to post in public domain. PM me via this site, and I can give you further information if you so desire. This will enable him to tell what vacancies are open, and how to look.

Of course, my personal opinion is that a Local Chairman's first job is to protect their members, and keep them working if at all possible. But aside from that, if I can help, let me know.

A bulletin is something CMS sends to the printers in the switch shack / crew room. Most of them make it to the walls for all to view. When its time to place himself somewhere, CMS will tell him his options, yard, extra board, layed off, pack you bags and go to????..... Theres no telling what the CMS managers will do, but something will happen.

Figure about the first five years of not knowing if your husband is gonna get layed off during some part of the winter. Dont over extend your budget!!! If were back to where we were 6 or 7 seven years ago, they will slice and dice any and all boards to the bone to see just how few employees they dont need to have on hand before the work really stacks up. And when they call them back they usually trickle it daily to study when things go back to normal.

Thank you Thank you Thank you THANK YOU You all are so much more helpful than any of the people around here. I swear sometimes I think there is stuipid in the water

And remember you cant spell stupid without UP!

Good luck you guys and lets hope things get back to normal for everyone soon enough.