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Denver PostRobots workin' on the railroad Thursday, May 16, 2002 - Working on the
railroad isn't what it used to be.
So says the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which sued the Union
Pacific Railroad Co. on Wednesday for replacing its members with remote
controls. The lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeks to stop the railroad from
using the drone technology at least until it's tested by federal
regulators and until the union settles a related labor dispute with the
company. "We run the trains, and we want to keep running the trains," said Mike
Young, general chairman of the 1,200-member union local that includes most
of Colorado. Union Pacific executives could not be reached for comment late
Wednesday. As engineers tell it, the company didn't bargain with the union before
starting to use radio-controlled devices this winter to move engines
around rail yards. Between 25 and 50 remote controls are being run by
members of the United Transportation Union - lower-paid conductors and
switchmen who are not trained to move locomotives. "They transferred our work to another craft without even talking with
us about it," Young said. The engineers union had planned to merge with UTU to bolster their
bargaining power. That deal fell through late last year. Young said the drone technology has cost about 12 engineers' jobs in
Iowa and about 15 in Oregon, plus another 50 to 80 pending job losses in
Kansas City. There have been no losses in Colorado thus far. The union
fears the remotes ultimately will be used not just in rail yards but also
"on the road" - along the nation's railways - and will render engineers'
jobs obsolete. The Federal Railroad Administration doesn't regulate the radio-control
devices but instead has issued guidelines for railroads. The suit notes that Union Pacific rail cars "contain all sorts of
commodities, including hazardous and nuclear materials." Union officials
say they worry about untrained workers controlling ghost trains hauling
such dangerous loads. |