BY REBECCA GETTLEMAN
RICHMOND, California - Beginning Jan. 1, 1995, all new hires on the Santa Fe Railway are supposed to learn to be conductors in just 13 weeks. Previously, training for the job both in the yard and on the road, including all the paper work, took two years. Three weeks in classroom training, nine weeks on-the-job training, and one week field training is supposed to do the trick now. Other railroads such as CSX and Burlington Northern have similar programs for conductors and engineers.
The newly implemented program has sparked a great deal of discussion among workers on the Santa Fe, especially regarding safety. Conductors are responsible for implementing the procedures of railroad operation contained in more than 200 pages of rules. They need to know how to build and take apart trains, and make sure that work is done safely, looking out for the entire crew.
"It's not enough time to become mature to the materials you're handling and job safety," Burt Chun, a 41-year-old conductor with 20 years on the railroad said. "Within the next year we will have to wait and see the other repercussions from this training program, maybe a possible train wreck because of lack of experience or inadvertent rule violation. Conductor is just a word now, in the past it meant experience, and now that's taken away. I hope they'll make the corrections before it's too late."
Rob Lindsey, a locomotive engineer who has worked at the Santa Fe for 17 years had a few comments on the question: "It's very unsafe, what used to take two years now takes 13 weeks. This reduces the wages of the working man at the railroad because you are only paid what it costs to replace you." Beginning in 1985, new hires receive 75 percent of full wages, and it takes five years to reach 100 percent wages.
Many United Transportation Union (UTU) officials in this area promoted the training program, hoping that the company would come across with a few concessions for workers hired before the new system went into effect.
Since the implementation of the shortened training program many co-workers have noted an increase in derailments and other accidents. The new trainees are under incredible pressure to work quickly and ignore safety, and at the same time, the company responds to their lack of experience by heaping on disciplinary action for making mistakes. New workers are in constant fear of losing their job.
Although some new hires are featured praising the conductor training program in a recent issue of the company newspaper, the Santa Fe Railway News, one of them was quoted as saying, "There's no way you can learn everything you need to know in one 13-week class." The Santa Fe considers the training program a success system-wide because most new workers pass the written exams. But there is little written work required to do the job. When the new employees are done with their training, there is little room for error. Small mistakes can mean someone's life.
At a recent Town Hall meeting where Don McInnes, the chief executive officer of Santa Fe and a number of other bosses came to have a "dialogue" with rail workers, the company's disregard for the safety of workers and surrounding communities clearly showed through.
When several workers raised the likelihood that someone will be killed because of the lack of training, McInnes responded that more communication, teamwork, give and take, and finding solutions through joint union/company safety committees was all that was needed.
When a worker raised that we cannot possibly take them seriously when they say put safety first and then make someone a conductor in 13 weeks, Jim Martin, the Valley division superintendent, replied that returning to the two- year training program was "off the wall."
Most of the meeting focused on the higher profits that will result from the merger with the Burlington Northern, while workers will face inevitable layoffs. UTU members have been working under an expired contract since the beginning of the year and the company has stated that negotiations will not take place until the merger goes through. Meanwhile, in Lenexa, Kansas, the Santa Fe is rotating management through week-long classes on switching, running locomotives, and being conductors in preparation for a possible strike.
Company attempts to erode safety and the conditions of work on the railroads can be pushed back, but it will take a united fight. As long as companies like the Santa Fe put profits before human life, workers will always be subject to worsening working conditions, lower wages, more injuries and accidents, and speedup. We have to place blame where blame is due, on the company. We have to rise above the divisions the company tries to promote among rail workers.
Rail workers are in a weaker position to fight due to the concessions made over the years, such as the two-tier wage system. But new and younger workers who come to the railroad thinking they have landed a good job and lifelong career are learning quickly that their lives are often at risk so that the company can rake in millions in profits. They are also learning quickly the need for basic solidarity so that we can say no to unacceptable work conditions.
Rail workers can look to the examples of other workers like those who struck the Soo Line last year and the more recent Canadian Rail strike. By putting up a fight workers were able to hold off the bosses attempts to thoroughly gut union rights. These strike actions showed the power workers on the railroad have when we stick together and use union power.
Rail workers can also look to the struggles of our class around the world. Many co-workers on the Santa Fe have been eager to hear about the recent International Youth Brigade to Cuba that I and another co-worker participated in this past January. They wanted to learn about the conditions of workers there and how they are fighting the effects of the economic crisis. Rail workers can also learn a lesson from South African working people who mobilized in demonstrations of tens of thousands to protest the recent deaths of gold miners due to company negligence.
The Santa Fe has a slogan, which it hypocritically promotes while it shows no concern for our lives: "You have the right and obligation to work safely." Only rail workers themselves, fighting against company attempts to undercut safe working conditions, can make safety a reality.
Rebecca Gettleman is a member of UTU Local 1730 at the Santa Fe railroad in Richmond and a member of the Young Socialists.