Prototype Railroading: Retention Board

Usually after the holidays, in the middle of January, traffic slows down a bit for freight railroads.  There are many reasons for this.  January through March tent to be months where construction slows down dramatically; large purchases, such as cars, also is at a low during this time.  In addition, a lot of the coal mines in Wyoming shut down for a week to a few weeks, for annual maintenance and upkeep.  During that time, the coal trains are rotated out of service for maintenance and repairs as well.  Generally, the economy as a whole is a little slower during those months, and as a result, less freight is being shipped, and traffic slows down.

When rail traffic slows down, fewer train crews are needed to keep the railroad running.  The railroad could keep all the train crews working full time, through the winter, but that would mean everyone works a lot less.  Working less means earning less.  Some people would rather just have some time off, to get projects around the house done, or go on vacation.  So rather than making everyone work, the railroad can do a few different things.  This year, in Glendive, BNSF instituted a retention board.  A retention board allows people to stay employed with the railroad, and maintain their seniority, but take some time off, without having to use vacation time.  The railroad pays a certain amount to people on the retention board, basically so they do not quit.  In January, the BNSF opened bids for the retention board, for both engineers and conductors.  People who were interested in being on the retention board can bid, and then bids are awarded based on seniority.  If the railroad needs people to come back to work, they can call, starting with the person with the least seniority, and then they have 48 hours to return to work.

The railroad usually does not like spending money if they absolutely do not have to.  When rumors of a retention board started to circulate towards the end of 2011, most people had the attitude of "we will believe it when we see it."  The idea that the railroad would pay people to not come to work was hard to believe at first. Sure, they have done it before, but not often!  In years past, they have furloughed employees.  Instead of paying them not to come to work, they just cut them off the working boards.  When on furlough, employees can collect unemployment, and they keep their health benefits.  When the railroad decides to call them back to work, they have to send a letter and give 30 days notice of work.  Because of that, they do not like to furlough for a short period of time.  When furloughed employees return to work, they do keep their seniority number.

Last week, the railroad started calling everyone back to work from the retention board.  Most people found this surprising because traffic has not picked up significantly.  There would be a need for more crews with the institution of rest cycles a few weeks ago, but not enough to call nearly 30 people back to work.  The traffic has picked up, but only very slightly.  No one expected the railroad to call everyone back at least until March.  I suspect the railroad got tired of paying so many people for nothing!  Now we have everyone back on the working boards, but since there really is not enough jobs for everyone, there is a LOT of bumping going on.  It seems like there are always nearly a dozen people on the bump board, having been displaced from their job by someone coming off the retention board, or by someone else who was bumped by someone coming off the retention board.  There was a domino effect when everyone got called back, and it is lasting longer than usual since there are not enough positions for everyone.  It should taper off, and there will be more jobs for everyone in a few weeks as traffic starts to pick up again.