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5/19/2020
BNSF Railway recently bragged about the Automated Track Inspection (ATI) pilot taking place on their Powder River Division. Over the past year, BNSF has used railcar-mounted devices to gather data which is then analyzed and interpreted by non-BMWED employees in offices far away from the tracks inspected. Based off these data points, and without visual confirmation, BNSF then makes decisions about track safety and maintenance priorities.
BMWED Track Inspectors, the men and women to whom this work belongs, are technically skilled railroaders who can not only recognize track defects, but as experienced maintenance workers can understand the context surrounding those defects and how to properly address them. BNSF, in its never-ending effort to cut costs and boost profits, want automation to replace the work our members do. Whatever their reasoning, their intent is clear. Under this ATI pilot, the time given for our BMWED Track Inspectors to perform their critical safety work on the tracks has declined by 20 percent! BNSF gets away with this through a waiver on FRA safety regulations, permitting reduced visual inspections. Fewer visual inspections mean more profits for shareholders far away from the communities those tracks pass through.
BMWED took the FRA to court over the waiver it gave BNSF to reduce visual inspection frequencies and begin these automated “inspections.” Burlington System Division has also worked with our National Division to prove that BNSF’s new obsession with “job cuts through technology” cannot and should not take the place of our experienced Track Inspectors performing visual inspections.
Staci Moody-Gilbert, General Chairwoman of the Burlington System Division, makes the point plain. “BMWED Track Inspectors, on the ground, see the whole picture. We recognize problems that machines can’t. Our inspectors, working with our crews, find defects and know how to fix them the right way. A computer screen in Ft. Worth can’t do the same job our people do, on the tracks, every day.”
Recent economic downturns give railroads more excuses to cut costs and shift the effects of global crisis onto their employees. By its own, publicly available reports, BNSF made $44 million more in the first quarter of 2020 than it did in the same period in 2019. They do this by forcing workers to bear the economic burden, slashing hours, cutting jobs, and wringing more out of fewer skilled workers. BNSF plans to cut jobs in Wyoming, Nebraska, and other regions close to their Powder River Division. They also look to expand their ATI program, boosting revenue even further by reducing visual safety inspections.
As our workers, essential to the maintenance of commerce and safe transportation, pay the costs associated with a pandemic and a shrinking global economy, BNSF and other railroads will continue to pride themselves on their ability to maximize profit, reduce safety regulation, and underestimate the value of our skilled workers.
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