If people like you continually inform Amtrak as to good and bad experiences/employees, then why doesn't the message get translated down to the workers and overall improvement result?
The message does get translated down and things have improved considerably from where they used to be. The issue is that it does take time and it does take more than just the word of one passenger. And far too many passengers either never say anything or if they do complain, they don't have the name of the crew member. Amtrak is a union shop; they can't just fire someone at the drop of a hat. It takes multiple complaints and documentation to force someone out; as I understand it from GG-1 who is in a union (not Amtrak) and has been in a position of considerable responsability within a union, it's quite an involved process to terminate an employee. Making matters tougher, even if the union knows that the person in question is useless and worthy of being fired, by Federal law the union must still fight to protect that member's job. If they don't fight, they could lose their ability to remain a union.
And for all those who think that management doesn't ride trains; let me tell you that they do. They aren't on every train, but they are on far more trains than many people here seem to think. I've bumped into more than one during my travels. But remember, more supervision means greater cost to Amtrak and it means 1 less roomette available for sale!
A disclaimer first: I was a 36 year Amtrak employee that was put on disability by Amtrak one year to the day before my scheduled retirement.
Alan your information from GG1 is basically correct. The rail industry is covered by the Railway Labor Act, which predates almost if not all current labor regulation. I have a BA in management and some post grad work in labor relations and collective bargaining and have served as a uniion representative in many positions for more then 25 years of my Amtrak career. The problem with dismissing an employee lies in the facts that the company is the judge, jury, and executor at the first hearing and is very quick to dismiss employees. ( NO ONE at Amtrak has a "job for life".)
Some departments do formal consoling before the first hearing but others do not. If discipline is assessed at the first hearing it is appealed and all appeals are just rubber stamps at Amtrak. No part of this process is really fair and impartial. The final decision is usually made by some form of arbitration (there as several.)
If the initial charge was not well prepared by the Amtrak manager the impartial arbitrator will either mitigate or completely overturn the decision and if that is done the employee is returned to service and all of his losses are made up by Amtrak.
I have represented Amtrak employees at hundreds of these investigations and can tell you that discipline is assessed. Employees are given time off and even dismissed. In most cases the discipline is needed, but as Alan B stated that the union has a "duty of representation" for all members be they good or bad.
The union does not like the bad apples but as I have told many an Amtrak manager, The union did not hire them and Amtrak had an opportunity to outright dismiss them in their probationary period.
I can personally tell you that many bad apples have been dismissed and the dismissal sustained. It is the dismissals that are overturned that give some employees the felling that they are untouchable. The overturned decisions are maybe 1 in 25.
Another Amtrak morale lowering fact has been that the company in the past has used the Railway Labor Act to draw out the negotiation period for years, in a recent session it was over 8 years for a significant number of Amtrak employees. This combined with an uncertainty of funding (which translates to will I have a job in October). does not help the morale. Hope and Change have arrived at Amtrak as now it is a priority for the Obama Administration as five years authorization has been made and Amtrak has made a contract offer to the unions in a timely manner.
PS Alan out here in the wilderness(not on the NEC or west coast) management riding trains if like finding hen's teeth.
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