"Blackballing" - How to Get Around it?

I know there are some management-types here...so I'm going to throw this out for discussion.

Yep, I'm finding more and more evidence I'm being "blackballed" by CSX. Several jobs I was enthusiastic about; and with good interviews...and these disappear.

It's almost certainly because of a poor attendance record, due to long-term family illness; it may also have been do to an incident (on the property but not related to duties) where I was assaulted and where the carrier tried, unsuccessfully, to dismiss me without firing my assailant.

Right now, I need a job. I want to get back into railroading because I need at least two more years to become partially vested in Railroad Retirement. After that...I can just work as an independent trucker, if it comes to that.

How can I overcome this? Has anyone been able to bring action against a carrier for a poor reference? Right now I'm on long-term injury...would it help to actually cut the ties with CSX? I don't want to go back to that workhouse.

And, again, management-guys...what's the best way to overcome this during the interview process? So far I've been candid with them about my attendance...is that the problem?

I'm looking at shortlines and other alternatives...but so long as CSEcch is poor-mouthing me, my chances are somewhere between slim and none, with any job.

Sounds like a good gripe to take to your union rep.

-otto-

conrail_engineer wrote:How can I overcome this? Has anyone been able to bring action against a carrier for a poor reference? Right now I'm on long-term injury...would it help to actually cut the ties with CSX? I don't want to go back to that workhouse.

CE, a few questions:


Are you out on disability? If so, then you're still on the CSX roster? If you are, then that would certainly impede your ability to get hired by another outfit.


Regarding your injury, is there a lawsuit pending?

thebigc wrote:

conrail_engineer wrote:How can I overcome this? Has anyone been able to bring action against a carrier for a poor reference? Right now I'm on long-term injury...would it help to actually cut the ties with CSX? I don't want to go back to that workhouse.

CE, a few questions:


Are you out on disability? If so, then you're still on the CSX roster? If you are, then that would certainly impede your ability to get hired by another outfit.


Regarding your injury, is there a lawsuit pending?

Off with a medical waiver. I can't prove it's job-related (although it is, indirectly) and there's no way to follow it through with a lawsuit.

Yes, I'm still on the CSX roster. I've been candid about the whole thing...about the condition (bulging disc in my back resulting in a pinched nerve, the condition is called "sciaticia" (sp?). It resulted from a weight gain of 100 pounds that twisted my spine; this was made worse from the heavy load (40-plus pounds) of CSX rulebooks we're now required to tote with us everywhere.

Dieting didn't work while I was on the job, because of erratic sleep habits. Doc tells me the lack of sleep was screwing up my metabolism. I was eating next to NOTHING but not losing weight.

I've now dropped fifty pounds in five months and feel fine. But that's going to end once I go back to the same Chinese-fire-drill and can't get sleep.

This is the appeal of a short line to me. Something approximating a regular workday.

I'm not unrealistic about this. I've been in the transportation industry most of my adult life, and I understand long hours are the norm. Right now I'm working nights, under the table...that does me just fine, except there's little money in it and it's decreasing.

Long hours I'm not afraid of. But long hours coupled to start times that are all over the clock, coupled to NO days off, ever, coupled to discipline if I do not take a call because I'm exhausted...this I cannot do anymore.

The two places I interviewed with have structured operations, with of course some need for flexibility. I talked in detail of why I wanted off a Class 1 and why I thought I could fit in. And as well, where and how I worked prior to coming to the railroad.

At this point I don't know what the hell to do. I could go back to CSX tomorrow; but there's nothing I can hold but the same miserable road slots. Yard jobs have been cut to 20 percent of what Conrail had; and they're all filled with thirty-year men.

If I have to give it up and forfeit Railroad Retirement, then that's the way it is...but I don't want to resign myself to doing that without first exhausting the alternatives.

Otto Vondrak wrote:Sounds like a good gripe to take to your union rep.

-otto-

My union guy is totally aware of what's going on; he's offered encouragement but not much else. He's been telling the Labor Relations fink just exactly what's going on with me; and letting him know he's keeping tabs on me; but he's not offering any ideas to get around THIS.

He's wary, too. He's been burned before by scam artists. I'm an "outsider" - in my neck of the woods, most of the guys who work on the railroad had fathers and grandfathers who did, too. One big happy family...

His pull with CSX is limited, as are all union reps. The company would rather drive men than work with them.

Why would the company try to dismiss you after being victimized? Why was the other not disciplined? If you were genuinely assaulted, why didn't you file a complaint with the police? Are you applying for another T&E position within CSX, or a clerical position?

Regarding other opps- with all due respect, if you come across in an interview as having the opinion of CSX as is clear in your postings, I'm not surprised that you are without success. Any hiring manager will immediately nix a badmouther.

Cowford wrote:Why would the company try to dismiss you after being victimized? Why was the other not disciplined? If you were genuinely assaulted, why didn't you file a complaint with the police? Are you applying for another T&E position within CSX, or a clerical position?

Regarding other opps- with all due respect, if you come across in an interview as having the opinion of CSX as is clear in your postings, I'm not surprised that you are without success. Any hiring manager will immediately nix a badmouther.

The latter first: The question comes up why I want to leave a Class 1 and take a cut in pay. I focus, quite properly, on my health issues. It is not the place to discuss CSX.

Why would they try to dismiss me? Because the assailant was a minority and I was not. If that sounds whiney-whiney to you, it's because it hasn't happened to you...yet.

Why not the police? First, there were no witnesses; happened in the cab. The bozo pulled me out from behind the controls and then started slapping me down the steps into the nose. I just kept going...and no, I was not hurt, only angry. I followed company policy and tried to diffuse the situation, by leaving it. You gonna tell me you're just going to continue working after your conductor/engineer lays violent hands on you?

I don't want this to become a discussion of the EEOC. But sometimes and with some supervisors, minorities are given blanket passes for behavior what would have had anyone fired.

If your health issues are a source of discussion in an interview... then that probably limits your options. As you stated, there are a lot of scam artists out there and employers will look for people that would be at high risk for attendance issues. As you probably know, it's one of the biggest problems that railroads contend with.

If you've got more than two years to vest in RRB (there's no partial vestment) - then you've been with the company less than three years? It seems as if you may want to suck it up and clean up your work record with CSX if your health will allow it. What about transfer to another division/region?

Cowford wrote:If your health issues are a source of discussion in an interview... then that probably limits your options. As you stated, there are a lot of scam artists out there and employers will look for people that would be at high risk for attendance issues. As you probably know, it's one of the biggest problems that railroads contend with.

If you've got more than two years to vest in RRB (there's no partial vestment) - then you've been with the company less than three years? It seems as if you may want to suck it up and clean up your work record with CSX if your health will allow it. What about transfer to another division/region?

Good points. I have eight years on the railroad...according to what I've read in a booklet from RRB and from what my union goombah tells me, I'm eligible for a partial pension with ten years in, so long as I don't cut "current connection."

The only allowable work that doesn't cut "current connection" is self-employment.

That's not as limiting as it seems. I've worked as a trucker before and I can go back to it, as an owner-operator. I'll only need to work eighteen years until I'm of retirement age.

But that's first allowing that I can get those final 24 months in.

Why not suck it up? Because things haven't gotten better. The days are twelve hours, relentless. The terminal doesn't have a rest day scheduled. The rule books, forty pounds of them, are just as heavy.

I go back, I'll start gaining back the weight, the blood sugar goes back up, and my spinal degeneration (which seems to have been arrested) resumes.

My body's more important than the job, or even the pension.

Why not transfer to a more laid-back division? Because I'm an ex-Con. We're limited in where we can transfer to. Matter of fact, there's an easy short-pool run between Willard and Collinwood, doesn't pay much but it's about nine hours each day, starts like clockwork every morning at 3 AM. Perfect.

I bumped on it, with some resistance. Then Labor Relations swung the hammer and had me removed from it.

And the job goes unfilled. A-mazing....nobody else even wanted it. But that's what I'm up against

conrail_engineer wrote:Why not transfer to a more laid-back division? Because I'm an ex-Con. We're limited in where we can transfer to. Matter of fact, there's an easy short-pool run between Willard and Collinwood, doesn't pay much but it's about nine hours each day, starts like clockwork every morning at 3 AM. Perfect.

I bumped on it, with some resistance. Then Labor Relations swung the hammer and had me removed from it.

And the job goes unfilled. A-mazing....nobody else even wanted it. But that's what I'm up against

Was this something contractual or a condition of your employment?

From the RRB website:

The basic requirement for a regular employee annuity is 120 months (10 years) of creditable railroad service or 60 months (5 years) of creditable railroad service if such service was performed after 1995. Service months need not be consecutive, and, in some cases, military service may be counted as railroad service.

I'm no RRB expert... but I believe that the "current connection" restriction only applies to "supplemental annuities," which is another way to say that your benefits can start earlier- at 60 or 65 years of age- and not 65-67, depending on birth date. You have to put in over 25 years to be eligible for supplemental annuities.

In short... assuming you put in at least 5 years since 1995, you're vested and can start collecting between 65-67 years of age. Then again, if that's all you put in and your 67th birthday is ~20 years from now, your annuity probably won't be a hell of a lot more than Soc Security.

My opinion: RRB is an anachronism and needs to be phased out (without penalizing vested participants.)

Anyone chime in if I've got this wrong.[/i]

thebigc wrote:
Was this something contractual or a condition of your employment?

Has to do with seniority districts, and the Kasher Awards...Kasher being the Federal Mediator who arranged a right for former Conrail engineers (not conductors) to have free rights of movement over the former Conrail controlled by CSX.

The work in question was in fact 90 percent over the Conrail Indianapolis Division, with ten percent over the B&O New Castle Sub. Yet it's been ruled (incorrectly, in my union guy's opinion, and he backs it with facts) as Former B&O work and not former Conrail work.

Changing divisions is IMPOSSIBLE on CSX (at least for us) except on invitation from the Company; periodically they'll advertise vacancies in other divisions and invite men to move. I've never looked into it; I DID change terminals from Buffalo to Avon, and found the same mess (former Conrail, again).

I try to be philosophical about this. I cannot make another person or group of people be equitable or honest. If they're dishonest, overbearing or incompetent, my only real choice is to live with it or leave.

Leaving is what I want. It doesn't have to be this way...it wasn't this way until 1999.

Cowford...I'll take it under advisement. My RRRB book (as I remember reading it from two months ago) seems to explicitly forbid employment elsewhere between separation from the railroad and drawing of retirement benefits; but I'm no lawyer either. Later today I'm going to meet with my Union LC and I'll bounce these questions off him.

Cowford wrote:From the RRB website:
My opinion: RRB is an anachronism and needs to be phased out (without penalizing vested participants.)

Anyone chime in if I've got this wrong.[/i]

Okay, I'll chime in. I could not disagree more with that statement. Phased out in favor of what? I have NEVER heard actual railroaders express dissatisfaction with RRB.

As far as c_e, you can call your nearest RRB office and get the scoop straight from them. They can tell you the vesting requirement, even how much you can expect to receive when you do start drawing benefits. My bet is also that RRB for 10 years of service is going to be a lot less than SS would be if you just went out and got another job. Doesn't seem very forward thinking to plan everything around such a small pittance.

As for why you aren't getting hired anywhere, no offense, but if you come across as negative and bitter as you do here, that is probably a good part of it. With FELA, railroads are also extremely conscientious about liability and really screen out those people with health issues that they think might try to sue them later.

What - you disagree with me, Delta??? I'm shocked! You've never heard anyone gripe about RRB? I guess we just don't hang out in the same circles... oh, I forgot, I don't know any "actual" railroaders.

And since you asked, I think it should be phased out in favor of straight SS, with the employee getting to choose how he/she will invest that other 5%.

My bet is also that RRB for 10 years of service is going to be a lot less than SS would be if you just went out and got another job.

Actually, that's not true... RRB is a two-tiered system. Tier 1 is identical to FICA and medicare as you'd see in a non-railroad job. Tier 2 is the ~5% additional that you pay as a railroad employee. If you leave the railroad before vesting, you lose the tier 2 and the tier 1 gets rolled into your ss for benefits calculations. If you have a combination of SS and vested RRB benefits coming, there is a calculation done to figure out how much you get over and above SS. I don't know the mechanics of it all, but you'd never be "penalized" for participating in RRB.