The Federal Railroad Administration accuses Union Pacific managers of intimidating and badgering employees so they don’t cooperate with safety inspections.
FRA Associate Administrator Karl Alexy made the accusation to the top UP officials on April 26 in a letter.
Alexy said numerous employees were coached to provide specific responses to questions when FRA inspectors interviewed them about the “safety culture” of the workplace, and the reports of the intimidation and coaching occurred throughout the UPRR system and railroad crafts.
Consequently, the FRA suspended the collection of data about safety conditions, saying it is useless to continue when the objectivity is questionable.
SMART Transportation Division, the union that represents conductors, said members were coerced to paint a rosy picture of the company, and they encourage workers to come clean about it.
“The SMART-TD members who took part in the survey should get on record with their local chairperson, then call UP’s ethics hotline. The number is (800) 998-2000.” union officials said.
The letter said that some employees told “FRA inspectors that they have received instruction that if they are approached to complete a field interview, they must report this interaction to their supervisor.”
Also, FRA encountered “reluctance to participate in field interviews from employees who cite intimidation or fear of retaliation, the FRA said in a letter to top officials at Union Pacific.”
It is not clear what FRA will do next about the situation. They don’t seem inclined to back down.
Alexy’s letter to UP says the inspectors will “continue to exercise its statutory authority to conduct inspections, accident investigations, and other railroad safety oversight activities. As you (UP) are aware, FRA personnel may enter railroad property unannounced to inspect railroad facilities, equipment, rolling stock, operations, and relevant records to enforce the Federal railroad safety laws.”
The letter says that the FRA will work with UP to identify policies and practices that, if improved, would
maximize the usefulness of safety culture data collection.
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What, you don’t say, No way!……
Just think, if UP took all the time, effort, and resources that go into cover-ups, lies, cheating, subversion, etc, and put that towards actually moving freight. They could be the best performing railroad in the US.
The railroad here runs almost like the old school mafia. Intimidation, scare tactics, threats. And wasn’t there something in this towns history about the mafia?