Beech Grove Layoffs (rumor)?

[Bob Dylan]

According to a Post on trainorders Beech Grove announced the Layoff of 50 "Coach One" Workers today!

This makes absolutely No sense, if True???!!!

 

[Acela150]

Folks, I want to quickly point out that this story as mentioned is from TrainOrders. Please remember that a lot of false information is posted there by people who claim to be “in the know”. I will ask around to see if anyone has heard anything about the subject, I will add that I can’t promise to get an answer.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Folks, I want to quickly point out that this story as mentioned is from TrainOrders. Please remember that a lot of false information is posted there by people who claim to be “in the know”. I will ask around to see if anyone has heard anything about the subject, I will add that I can’t promise to get an answer.

Thanks Steve, hope it's not True!

 

[user 14106]

I saw this too. Seems a bit off especially given Amtrak recently announced an apprenticeship program there to train high school students directly into the crafts. Also a layoff of 50 employees would surely make at least local headlines. I have yet to find anything in their local media.

 

[Amtrakfflyer]

Amtrak has removed all job postings for Beech Grove except 1 for a building maintaince position. Below is the one and only job listed.

 

[joelkfla]

According to a Post on trainorders Beech Grove announced the Layoff of 50 "Coach One" Workers today!

This makes absolutely No sense, if True???!!!

What are "Coach One" Workers?

 

[GDRRiley]

its almost certainly false, Beach grove is likely to grow in the near term as amtrak needs to keep the equipment it has going.

 

[amtrakpass]

It sounds like the info was they want to lay off the Amtrak Union employees at Beech grove and use a contractor instead. I have no info whether or not this is true but I have seen similar things happen at railroads before. Such is the incentive for management to get employees off the payroll and into the contracting budget I have even seen it done where the contractor is union too and the cost to the company is higher but they do it anyway so they can reduce the number of actual railroad employees

 

[railiner]

It sounds like the info was they want to lay off the Amtrak Union employees at Beech grove and use a contractor instead. I have no info whether or not this is true but I have seen similar things happen at railroads before. Such is the incentive for management to get employees off the payroll and into the contracting budget I have even seen it done where the contractor is union too and the cost to the company is higher but they do it anyway so they can reduce the number of actual railroad employees

If true, that would be terrible. What next, outfits like Keolis taking over Amtrak T&E jobs? I don't think the railroad craft union's would tolerate much of that...

 

[amtrakpass]

Like I said I have no info in this case but in the recent past a lot of car department and track department work has been contracted out on many railroads for work that was traditionaly done by employees. T & E has been somewhat more protected but the sale of lines and yards to shortlines and then receiving all the cars at interchange anyway has had some of the same net effect. As for me I think it is a shame. Those working on the railroad should be railroad employees and receive railroad wages, benefits and contribute to the railroad retirement system in my view

 

[TransitTyrant]

A trainorders poster also claimed the LD trains were going back to tri-weekly after the summer and that Amtrak had halted all ALC42 deliveries.

 

[MARC Rider]

It sounds like the info was they want to lay off the Amtrak Union employees at Beech grove and use a contractor instead. I have no info whether or not this is true but I have seen similar things happen at railroads before. Such is the incentive for management to get employees off the payroll and into the contracting budget I have even seen it done where the contractor is union too and the cost to the company is higher but they do it anyway so they can reduce the number of actual railroad employees

This sort of reasoning was the bane of the Federal government during my entire 40-year career. Politicians wanted to "shrink the size of government," so they enacted personnel ceilings. Management, who, after all, had a job to do, spent a lot of their energy on work arounds that probably distracted them form their real jobs. Because the limits were on "full time" employees," the first thing they did was hire a lot of 36-hour a week "part time employees." (This, in fact, is how I entered the Federal government). The other thing they do (and EPA works very heavily on this) is contract stuff out. What that means is that instead of paying $50-$60 an hour for a senior level professional worker, they're paying close to $200 an hour, and you can be sure the actual worker gets paid less than an actual government employee would. You're basically paying for the job, the government's overhead for doing the job, the contractor's overhead for doing the job, and guaranteed (though limited by arcane rules) profit for the contractor. This might be OK if the contractor is doing intermittent work for the agency, but many of these contracts are for conducting parts of the regular work of the agency. So in the end, it has cost the taxpayers more money for less work being done, but, hey, the number of full-time Federal "bureaucrats" has been shrinking.

 

[JoeBas]

So in the end, it has cost the taxpayers more money for less work being done, but, hey, the number of full-time Federal "bureaucrats" has been shrinking.

And most importantly, the amount of money flowing to politically connected "contractors" (companies, not employees) has been increasing.

 

[amtrakpass]

That is a good first hand view of some of the pitfalls of contracting in the modern sense. There should be nothing wrong with hiring contractors for temp work, special expertise or common sense pooling of resources. But when the contractors are really doing full time regular jobs they should be full time regular employees wherever they are working in my book.

 

[Acela150]

A trainorders poster also claimed the LD trains were going back to tri-weekly after the summer and that Amtrak had halted all ALC42 deliveries.

If the username is SethAmtrak he’s full of rumors.

 

[jis]

If the username is SethAmtrak he’s full of rumors.

The poster's name is 2904 and his credibility level is considered to be relatively low by many. They have been asked to provide any supporting evidence and none has been forthcoming so far beyond attempts to prove by repeated assertion. So take it for what it is worth.

Someone else mentioned the possibility that work is being consolidated in Coach Shop 2 leading to surplus in Coach Shop 1, but again nothing beyond an assertion.

All one can do is wait and see if any information from an independent second source materializes.

 

[TransitTyrant]

If the username is SethAmtrak he’s full of rumors.

Seth is pretty notorious, he gets a lot of bad info from low level employees, typical foamer stuff and a little bit too obsessed with Charger “failures.” But no not him, don’t remember the username but he’s an Andrew Selden/Evan Stair propagandist.

 

[TransitTyrant]

The poster's name is 2904 and his credibility level is considered to be relatively low by many. They have been asked to provide any supporting evidence and none has been forthcoming so far beyond attempts to prove by repeated assertion. So take it for what it is worth.

Someone else mentioned the possibility that work is being consolidated in Coach Shop 2 leading to surplus in Coach Shop 1, but again nothing beyond an assertion.

All one can do is wait and see if any information from an independent second source materializes.

I know who 2904 is but I won’t reveal his name. He’s an Amtrak engineer out of Chicago. Yeah take what he says with a grain of salt. He claims Amtrak, not CN is to blame for the awful OTP on the CONO, Illini/Saluki.

 

[user 14106]

The lack of any more information today could hint that the information may be incomplete. 50 employees laid off at beech grove would surely make local news in that area and the unions would certainly be very vocal - nothing has come out from either.

 

[Ryan]

a little bit too obsessed with Charger “failures.”

That's something of an understatement.

 

[johnm]

I stopped posting over there some time ago due to one gentleman and his crew basically controlling every discussion, and a couple of “tin foil hat types.” I come here for the latest accurate information. I appreciate everything you all do.

John

 

[cirdan]

This sort of reasoning was the bane of the Federal government during my entire 40-year career. Politicians wanted to "shrink the size of government," so they enacted personnel ceilings. Management, who, after all, had a job to do ...

It's not just government.

I've spent my entire career (I'm in my low 50ies now) working for corporations. Corporations also have crazy targets set by top management who care more about metrics and KPIs than actual cost efficiency. First it started with things like security and janitorial services being farmed out to external contractors to be able to pretend on paper that we making more profit with fewer staff. The people doing the actual work were the same so it can't have been about bringing in external expertise, but I am sure with a middle man taking a cut that it can't have been cheaper than before. Today vast tranches of the business are handled by external contractors, and I am sure a lot of vital knowledge has been handed away. There was a time that the R&D people would sit in the same building as the customer service people so any problems would be fed back to R&D and they would take that into account in future. Today these departments are not even in the same country.

 

[user 14106]

I stopped posting over there some time ago due to one gentleman and his crew basically controlling every discussion, and a couple of “tin foil hat types.” I come here for the latest accurate information. I appreciate everything you all do.

John

And this site actually has decent moderation keeping things civil. That place is a free for all with full tolerance of bickering and over the top nasty comments towards other posters.
Back on topic here is the latest post from "2904" who it appears finally got the full story.

"They are shutting down the assembly line type process they call Coach 1 that rebuilds cars in stages, all the jobs are being abolished and the employees must rebid to jobs in Coach 2, essentially where cars are parked until they are fully repaired and ready to leave. Probably a rearranging of the deck chairs. "

Quite amazing how things can change once you get the full story.

 

[PaTrainFan]

Federal law requires 60 day notice through the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification). If this rumor was true, one would have expected more widely knowledge by now.

 

[user 14106]

Federal law requires 60 day notice through the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification). If this rumor was true, one would have expected more widely knowledge by now.

Yes you would have seen the unions go crazy and surely some reporting in the Indianapolis area local news.