Furloughed NJT Engineers

[bones]

How many engineer's were furloughed from NJT and why? I can't imagine that business slowed down. The same trains run eveyday. When are they supposed to get called back?

I work for Metra and a year and a half ago Metra did the same thing. They furloughed 5 engineers. Not because we were slow, but they thought they it would be a slick way to save money, and gain a few trainmen. The problem was that eveyone that was furloughed di not go into train service as the company had hoped. They took the furlough instead.

They were off for six months, and in that time we were very short handed. We couldn,t get a personal day, and we couldn't even get a day off for company business such as book of rules. When they furloughed these guys they had to force some junior engineers to work the other end of the system, which meant some of these guys were driving 60-70 miles one way to work. One of the forced engineers ended up quitting and went to work for the IHB.

Anyway they brought the 5 men back to work after 6 months and it hasn't happened since. I believe that Metra actually learned thier lesson from this. I didn't think that any other commuter agency was stupid enough to make the same mistake!

[TAMR213]

AFAIK, NJT has not furloghed engineers, but has pretty much stopped/furloghed the current LETP classes.

[steemtrayn]

NJT can't afford all those engineers. They need the money to operate the riverLINE.

[TAMR213]

Ugh. Engineers over the riverLINE deffinatly. Should be able to operate the existing lines before expanding.

[Zeke]

Why did they furlough those guys ? The amount of non productive workers I see in NJT office posistions is astounding. they could furlough 30 % of em and nobody would notice !

[Uzi-Cat]

You have to think with transit logic. When I qualified on transit territory, they would not let me qualify on the entire Hoboken Division. Instead they only gave me the territory that my assignment worked. That happened to be the Erie side. I plan on working Dover assignments and most assignments are midtown direct assignments so I needed the lackawanna side to start working as a conductor. Their argument for only giving you the territory your assignment works is that it saves money. How does this possibly save money when the whole time you are qualifying, your job goes to the list and is covered giving deadhead time and miles. The quicker I get out there working the job, the quicker it gets off the list. Instead they would rather have me qualify a few lines, go back to work for a week or two as a brakeman and get re-forceassigned a conduct job again. This stretches out the whole qualifying process and just sends more work to the extra board. But to the people who make the decisions, they are saving money. I know of a few trainmasters who have pointed this out and they get nowhere. I just chalk it up to transit logic. Don't try to understand, it will just make you as dumb as they are.

[Gilbert B Norman]

To a layman, or at least one who has been removed from the railroad industry for almost 25 years, one really must wonder "why did you hire 'em in the first place?". After all, the demand is constant, as the "windows" in which a CSX or NS freight engine employee holding Conrail rights, can "ebb and flow" to passenger service are fast closing.

Further, the costs of training classes simply will not be recovered; just as well I'm not a Taxpayer (or at least all that often one; I drive out that way from time to time; and I guess NJ participates in Sales Tax revenue from Amtrak F&B) in New Jersey.

I thought one of the reasons a young person embarking on a railroad operating career chooses the lower pay of passenger service was the predictability of the working conditions (no furlough, predictable hours), but this matter would suggest the old saying of "everything changes yet nothing changes" is quite operative at NJT.

Oh well, anyone starting to wonder why Gorgeous George got run outta 60 Mass (Amtrak Wash HQ)?

[Jtgshu]

I bet the reason that they kept hiring all these people, trainmen and engineers in the first place was that no one told them to stop......

Why would anyone put up a red flag - WOW, we hired a lot of people? If HR (personnel) said something, then everyone who deals with applications and hiring would have less work - then the training department, they would have less work - the unions, they would have less members coming in, and less money in their accounts, and if the unions would say anything, it would look as if they are against new jobs. (why would they want to limit their membership and encourage a halt to hiring?????).

So no one said anything, or maybe no one noticed, until it was too late. So everything is all hunkydorey until almost 30 engineers get laid off......

When NJT saw that their heavy rail expansion projects weren't getting off the ground as fast as they had originally hoped - MOM, W. Trenton, Cut off, NYSW - they should have said - okay, lets regroup here, maybe we should cut down on the hirign before we have too many people!!! And being hired at the start of this hiring binge almost 3 years ago, that was the reason why they told my class we were hired, and that they needed the bodies to help out with current increased ridership but mainly to have the qualified people to open these new lines in the not to distant future (so they thought at the time).

As WPD said, Transit logic........

[rcbsd45]

Hmmm... I have to wonder how many engineers are close to the magic numbers of "30 and 60" so as to retire? With the recent changes in the Railroad Retirement Act, it is becoming more common in the industry to see more frequent retirements. This is one reason why UP is behind the eight ball on crews these days. this decision by NJt doesn't make sense, but then again, as a state agency, why should it?