Summer 2002
Volume 109 - No. 2
Summer 2002
Volume 109 - No. 2
Communications
CSX puts engineers on 'back burner'
The following letter was sent to CSXT President Michael Ward by an anonymous locomotive engineer.
Dear Mr. Ward,
I was reading the CSXToday and the article you were in caught my eye. I have been with this company for many years as an engineer. Engineers have really done a great job to make this company what it is today. I feel that we have been a great asset to this growing business.
CSX has survived from a lot of hard work along with pride, by us, to handle this equipment and freight so that the company would be prosperous.
You said in your speech, "If we do right by our employees and treasure our employees more than anything else," we will be a successful company.
How can you make this statement with honesty from your heart and treat engineers the way we are being treated? It is hard for me to accept that we are being replaced by a remote control box ran by another craft. You are driving a "wedge" between the two crafts that have worked side-by-side for many years.
I feel like we have been put on the back burner and then after we are cooked for a little, we will be thrown to the wolves. After all we have been through over these many years, staying by the telephone, working all times of the day, losing sleep, never being able to live a normal life with the family, and now we are being treated as no importance to anyone. I believe if a person, like you, makes a statement of such great wisdom, then you should stand by it, not just saying what sounds good to please people. I believe this is an unsafe way to run a railroad.
Don't you think downsizing management would be more appropriate than doing away with the ones that make us all a paycheck?
A return to the traditional apparel requested
Dear President Hahs,
Some time ago, a letter to the editor was published in the Locomotive Engineers Journal, suggesting that all locomotive engineers wear traditional apparel, i.e. hickory stripe chore coats, engineer style hats and so on.
I thought this was a great idea. It would help to better identify the locomotive engineer, putting to rest a misconception of the general public that classifies every person on a train as a conductor, something that I run into far too frequently.
Sadly, there are not many manufacturers of the traditional railroad apparel left in the United States. I would think that with a resurrection there would come a turn-about in the production of these garments.
As International President of the oldest labor organization in North America, the one that represents the craft of locomotive engineer, I offer the suggestion that you request all of the Brothers and Sisters of our great organization to wear traditional rail apparel when working. This may better help to identify our craft, especially in this time when identity is critical.
A call for information on 'Orphan Trains'
Dear Editor,
I am writing to find out some information about the Orphan Trains that came out of New York in the early 1900s. My father was on one of those trains that left New York on Dec. 1, 1926 and arrived in Texas on Dec. 10, 1926. He is still alive and we have received some information from the Children's Aid Society of New York.
As the wife of a locomotive engineer, I feel there are many stories that we have not heard coming from the railroad employees who operated these trains. In all, approximately 150,000 children were transported by train throughout the United States.
My husband is the third generation of his family to have worked in the railroad industry, and I know that many railroad workers share their experiences with their families. I would like to know if there are any descendants of these employees out there who would be willing to share their family member's experience. I am sure that the railroad employees felt some sympathy for these children who were traveling to an unknown destination wondering if they would find a family to adopt them.
The Orphan Train Heritage Society of America provides as much information to the children as possible, and several states hold reunions annually.
I have listened to many orphans tell their stories, but I would like to hear from the employees who transported them to their new life away from New York.
© 2002 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers