greatcats
Engineer
Hi - I would be interested in comments as to the story I'm going to relate having to do with Union Pacific and a job that I attempted to apply for last year. I was employed for many years for a commuter rail agency in the East. In late 2001 we ended up in an ugly disagreement, which will not be discussed here, and in early 2002 I resigned, among much bad feeling. That is another story. Over four years later, and some lousy jobs, I am now a tour bus driver and guide here at Grand Canyon National Park. I am pleased to say that I love this job and intend to be here for awhile.
What I did in resigning from my former employer was certainly controversial and financially not a great idea, although the previous sentence pretty much negates that. I have tried to re-enter railroad employment and an Amtrak employee in South Carolina urged me to apply to Amtrak, to which I have submitted numerous applications. I can truthfully say that I was treated reasonably well by Amtrak staff, with compliments for courtesy and professionalism made to the lady in charge of Human Resources in Seattle. However, that has ended in frustration and I am well aware of all the problems with Amtrak, upon which I do occasionally travel. Early last year I also applied online to Union Pacific for several clerical positions in the west. In June of 2005 I received a phone message from UP inviting me to a job hiring session on July 1 in Roseville, California. I decided to take off several days from work here at the low paying job I was currently working at Grand Canyon, and drove nearly 900 miles to Roseville, near Sacramento. I arrived at the hotel meeting room early that morning in jacket and tie ( a rarity! ) with half dozen others and we sat in silence.....nobody appeared to run the meeting. One man finally made a phone call. He was told that the meeting had been cancelled. I asked to use his phone to speak to the person on the other end of the line and was told that we had all been notified that the meeting had been cancelled. None of us had received any phone messages to this effect - apparently the original count for the meeting was 17 or 18 people. The seven of us had been told nothing - the other six were from the local area, and I was the lone bird who had travelled a long distance. I left in a rage, drove to San Francisco for the night to enjoy myself ( make lemonade. right? ) and while there fired off three letters to UP top brass in Omaha demanding some reimbursement for my time and trouble. After two weeks with no answer to my certified letters, I fired off another set of letters and finally received from Barbara Schaefer, VP Human Resources, a letter of " apology. " She said I could call her to further discuss the matter, which I did. She became very defensive and refused to offer me any money. In my opinion, they screwed up and the fact that seven of us showed up that day, plus the hotel had not been notified that the meeting room was not needed, confirms this. But she would not hear any more of this. I have never pursued the matter, as I have not had the time or resources to show up in court elsewhere for something that cost me several hundred dollars that at the time I did not need to spend. I did send three letters to Congressmen, only one of which replied. ( John McCain ) saying this was for UP to handle. I sent his letter to Omaha, with no reply. Some people thought I was making a ridiculous request. I am also not that dumb to understand that Ms. Schaefer probably would have been in hot water if she had disbursed any funds to me, for a situation that rules probably do not cover. Ethically, I feel I should have been entitled to something, but we all know about corporate ethics! So, I got a raw deal, the Company did not care, and what else is new? In conclusion, IMHO, UP stinks.
I have heard from a former official of Denver and Rio Grande Western whom I know that UP management does not care, although he would have felt much as I did. I meet lots of people here in the National Park, and a retired plumber for Southern Pacific in the Sacramento area told me how UP made a mess of their job situation. From information gleaned from websites like this, UP is a callously run outfit that cannot handle very well the amount of freight train business, and we are well aware that they do a not so hot job of moving Amtrak trains over their trackage.
I have felt like venting and asking for feedback about my story, but I am still aggravated about it a year later, although it is fruitless to pursue that matter - it is now history and I feel blessed to have the good position that I now have. Your comments, please, on Union Pacific and they way they handle business.
What I did in resigning from my former employer was certainly controversial and financially not a great idea, although the previous sentence pretty much negates that. I have tried to re-enter railroad employment and an Amtrak employee in South Carolina urged me to apply to Amtrak, to which I have submitted numerous applications. I can truthfully say that I was treated reasonably well by Amtrak staff, with compliments for courtesy and professionalism made to the lady in charge of Human Resources in Seattle. However, that has ended in frustration and I am well aware of all the problems with Amtrak, upon which I do occasionally travel. Early last year I also applied online to Union Pacific for several clerical positions in the west. In June of 2005 I received a phone message from UP inviting me to a job hiring session on July 1 in Roseville, California. I decided to take off several days from work here at the low paying job I was currently working at Grand Canyon, and drove nearly 900 miles to Roseville, near Sacramento. I arrived at the hotel meeting room early that morning in jacket and tie ( a rarity! ) with half dozen others and we sat in silence.....nobody appeared to run the meeting. One man finally made a phone call. He was told that the meeting had been cancelled. I asked to use his phone to speak to the person on the other end of the line and was told that we had all been notified that the meeting had been cancelled. None of us had received any phone messages to this effect - apparently the original count for the meeting was 17 or 18 people. The seven of us had been told nothing - the other six were from the local area, and I was the lone bird who had travelled a long distance. I left in a rage, drove to San Francisco for the night to enjoy myself ( make lemonade. right? ) and while there fired off three letters to UP top brass in Omaha demanding some reimbursement for my time and trouble. After two weeks with no answer to my certified letters, I fired off another set of letters and finally received from Barbara Schaefer, VP Human Resources, a letter of " apology. " She said I could call her to further discuss the matter, which I did. She became very defensive and refused to offer me any money. In my opinion, they screwed up and the fact that seven of us showed up that day, plus the hotel had not been notified that the meeting room was not needed, confirms this. But she would not hear any more of this. I have never pursued the matter, as I have not had the time or resources to show up in court elsewhere for something that cost me several hundred dollars that at the time I did not need to spend. I did send three letters to Congressmen, only one of which replied. ( John McCain ) saying this was for UP to handle. I sent his letter to Omaha, with no reply. Some people thought I was making a ridiculous request. I am also not that dumb to understand that Ms. Schaefer probably would have been in hot water if she had disbursed any funds to me, for a situation that rules probably do not cover. Ethically, I feel I should have been entitled to something, but we all know about corporate ethics! So, I got a raw deal, the Company did not care, and what else is new? In conclusion, IMHO, UP stinks.
I have heard from a former official of Denver and Rio Grande Western whom I know that UP management does not care, although he would have felt much as I did. I meet lots of people here in the National Park, and a retired plumber for Southern Pacific in the Sacramento area told me how UP made a mess of their job situation. From information gleaned from websites like this, UP is a callously run outfit that cannot handle very well the amount of freight train business, and we are well aware that they do a not so hot job of moving Amtrak trains over their trackage.
I have felt like venting and asking for feedback about my story, but I am still aggravated about it a year later, although it is fruitless to pursue that matter - it is now history and I feel blessed to have the good position that I now have. Your comments, please, on Union Pacific and they way they handle business.
