Who wants to work for Amtrak? OBS?

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Oh oh! I do! Oh wait...

Applications recently closed for five positions in Boston, and we're allowed to hire some more next year.

I can't wait! I finally won't be the junior anymore! :eek:
 
Triley, don't feel bad, when I marked up at NS I was second youngest on the list. The day after I marked up the guy who was under me got forced to a job, got bumped a week later, then got forced to another job 2 weeks later. But the jobs he got forced to were good jobs to get forced to.

Interestingly enough, Amtrak has posted the same position for Assistant Con out of BOS repetitively for about 8 months or so.
 
Interesting seeing how boilerplate the position notes are (the "up to 8 days" bit really only applies, IIRC, to the Zephyr and Eagle-Sunset attendants; I think being based out of Lorton would put you at a two-night round-trip (with most of your work being for dinner for an Auto Train diner attendant). Also, IIRC the Auto Train employees are in their own "universe" separate from the rest of the Amtrak system (which would probably make this...at least on the OBS side, probably about the best gig to grab in Amtrak).
 
I don't know whether to be amused, or confused, or something in between. The job description is so simplified that it is probably meaningless. It looks like boiler plate, written by somebody wearing an empty hat. The location is Lorton, so one would assume that the announcement is for Auto Train. Of course, assumptions can be dangerous. "Travel and entry to Canada is required": Are they planning to extend the A-T to Nova Scotia? Yes, SA's do report to LSA's. But the last I heard, all A-T trainees are trained to be LSA's too. On the Auto Train, the highest employee in charge is the Onboard Services Chief, who is not mentioned. There is no mention of the duties of coach attendants or SCA's. When I worked those jobs, there were duties that required training and expertise. Most tellingly, there is no mention whatsoever of safety training and safety responsibilities.

In sum, those who have followed AU for a while will have a lot better idea of the duties than whoever wrote this thing. Unless there has been a major change in policies and procedures, the people in charge of conducting the training will also be people with many years of practical experience. If you want to try for it, don't let this thing deter you. You'll probably never meet the simplistic person who wrote it. He (she?) apparently lives in an office & might not be able to find the train, much less work it.

Actually, the announcement is a hoot!

Tom
 
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Another Great Post! Keep "em coming folks!

And Tom,as Steve and Cliff mentioned, could you expound on the Separate AT Seniority List we hear about??
 
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I never paid a lot of attention to the separate seniority list because after I went to Auto Train in 1987 I was never seriously tempted to go back to regular service. There were others who felt exactly the opposite, and did choose to go to regular service from Auto Train. To each his own. Basically, it refers to the seniority rights that you build up for the purpose of job bids. After I transferred, I had a certain amount of time in which I could transfer back without penalty. I think it was about a year, but I may not be remembering correctly. Once that limit was reached, my bidding seniority for regular service was gone. At that point I started to build up my bidding seniority on the Auto Train roster, and had over 25 years' service by the time I retired. If someone with 26 years of regular service seniority had transferred to Auto Train, he would have started out with zero Auto Train seniority. He would probably be on the A-T extra board for quite a while, and could not outbid me in a job choice on the Auto Train. If I had transferred to regular service at that point, I'd have been in the same boat, starting on the regular service extra board, with zero regular service bidding seniority.

This only applies to job bidding, and does not affect an employee's seniority in terms of eligibility for vacations, retirement benefits, etc.

Tom
 
Acela150 said:
Tom just out of curiosity do the LSA's, CA's, SCA's, etc get a National Seniority?
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Auto Train OBS builds Auto Train and National seniority.

Rest of the system builds just National seniority, at least that's what my trainers (as Tom knows, they are former Auto Train attendants) said.
 
The significant difference between the A-T and other long-distance trains, besides the separate seniority roster is that one cannot simply bump onto the A-T. A-T employees are basically hand picked, then, if not already trained, they are cross-trained on all positions. You must be able to work all positions on the train except for chef. If I'm wrong on that chef part, I'm sure someone can correct me.

Once you've been selected to work the A-T, it is pretty much precisely as Tom described.
 
EB_OBS said:
The significant difference between the A-T and other long-distance trains, besides the separate seniority roster is that one cannot simply bump onto the A-T. A-T employees are basically hand picked, then, if not already trained, they are cross-trained on all positions. You must be able to work all positions on the train except for chef. If I'm wrong on that chef part, I'm sure someone can correct me.

Once you've been selected to work the A-T, it is pretty much precisely as Tom described.
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Exactly right.
 
I think current policy says A-T trainees are all trained as chef as well as other positions, but I can't guarantee that my info is accurate. I'll defer to others on the National Seniority issue, because I don't know for sure.

Tom
 
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Acela150 said:
Tom just out of curiosity do the LSA's, CA's, SCA's, etc get a National Seniority?
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They do, but...you can not use the seniority to bid a job in a different crewbase without putting in transfer request and the transfer being accepted. Unlike T&E crews with their national seniority where they can bid a job anywhere/anytime.

Also the Auto train OBS seniority is a separate craft, and if leaving A/T for a different crewbase, you start new seniority dates in LSA, TA, whatever, upon the date you start in non A/T crewbase.
 
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