Santa Fe Gets OK to Reduce Train Crew Size

The Santa Fe Railway on Wednesday won the right to operate freight trains on all its lines, from Chicago to Los Angeles, with as few as two crew members, instead of the four previously required under union agreements.

But union workers in Santa Fe’s eastern region will get from $5,000 to $75,000 apiece for agreeing to the crew-size reduction.

United Transportation Union members who work on the eastern half of Santa Fe line overwhelmingly ratified an agreement reducing the minimum crew size to two from four .

The pact provides cash compensation to all the union members.

Workers who choose to give up their jobs during the first 90 days the agreement is in effect will be paid $75,000 in severence. All other UTU workers on the eastern line will be paid $5,000 in compensation for the crew-size reduction.

Employees who choose to keep their jobs but lack seniority to qualify for regular employment will be placed on newly established reserve boards, where they will draw 70% of their 1989 wages and fringe benefits until recalled to active duty or until they elect to leave the company.

The new agreement covers about 2,250 employees, or 53% of the railway’s conductors, trainmen and yardmen.

Under the pact, all trains in the eastern region will operate with a maximum of one conductor and one brakeman, plus one engineer, and approximately 20% of the trains will operate with only a conductor and an engineer.

The “conductor only” trains will operate with no train length or train composition restrictions.

Previously, all freights had to have two brakeman and a conductor in addition to the engineer.

A Santa Fe spokesman said the railway expects about 700 of the eastern region UTU members to take the $75,000 voluntary severance offer or assignment to the new reserve boards.

The 88% vote by eastern region workers approving the pact comes more than a year after their fellow union members on Santa Fe’s Texas and West Coast lines approved a similar crew-reduction agreement.