Rail Crew Drivers: Working Sick and Sick of Waiting

For this they earn wages that come out to barely over minimum wage – 19 cents a mile for long-distance drivers – far below industry trucking standards, or $8 to $9 an hour for time waiting in their vehicle. Yard drivers who work eight-hour shifts and move crews between waiting trains are also paid on average less than $9 an hour.

In ongoing contract negotiations, the United Electrical Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) are demanding pay for on-call time and the enforcement of legally mandated rest periods, among other things.

On Thursday, May 13, drivers picketed outside BNSF’s Corwith rail yard on Chicago’s southwest side in a cold rain, eliciting a constant blare of horns from truck drivers pulling into the facility.

So far Renzenberger has resisted the workers’ demands along with the union’s demand for pay increases and paid sick days and holidays. Negotiations with the Kansas-based company resume in late May.

Renzenberger is one of four major companies nationally that drive railroad crews between trains, hotels and homes. It is a little-known but huge industry essential to keeping freight and passenger rail systems going. In years past, people like Bibb were employees of the railroad companies, typically unionized and earning about three times more. As is the overwhelming trend in the whole logistics industry, the jobs were subcontracted out, meaning subcontractors aggressively try to outbid each other. Companies called PTI, Coach America and RailCrew Xpress are Renzenberger’s main competition.

Josie Ramos, a driver for PTI, says she and her co-workers have it even worse. A decade ago PTI (Professional Transportation Inc.) signed a contract with a Brooklyn-based independent union, without the workers support, a typical move by companies seeking to avoid organizing by a pro-active union. Ramos said workers hope to eventually decertify that union and organize with the UE or another local, pro-worker union.

​“I can’t even reach (the union), I have to call New York and then I get into a voicemail system,” she said. Ramos, 70, enjoyed good pay and benefits working for Ryerson steel until her second knee operation in 1988 forced her to quit. Now she earns barely more than minimum wage. ​“We don’t want yachts and Hawaiian vacations, we just want a living wage,” she said.

Both Renzenberger and PTI tout their commitment to safety. Renzenberger’s telephone greeting says: ​“Thanks for calling Renzenberger, where safety is first.” PTI’s website says:

PTI has set the industry standard for safety with our world-class safety program. The primary objective of the safety program is to insure that our drivers are the safest and most well-trained drivers on the road in order to eliminate collisions and prevent injuries.

Workers scoff at such statements.

“Renzenberger says they are all about safety. But when they come to the bargaining table, Renzenberger is all about Renzenberger,” said Cindy Fox, a member of the negotiating team.

The pay is so little that many Renzenberger yard drivers work second jobs. They know they could be fired for refusing overtime, so they might end up losing their second job in order to please their Renzenberger bosses.

Bibb ran his own trucking business until tight economic times forced him to give it up. He says he drove a double trailer for 33 years without a single accident or ticket. Nevertheless, experienced drivers like him are treated ​“like children,” in Ramos’s words, monitored by cameras in the vans that are activated by every bump, pot hole or sudden stop. The drivers are frequently disciplined based on the camera footage, they say, even though it catches situations out of context. For example, they are supposed to stay four seconds behind the car in front of them.

​“But in Chicago if you leave any space someone will pull in front of you, and then they blame you,” said Bibb. ​“If you never drove a double trailer down an icy mountain, don’t sit in Kansas and tell me how to drive a van. I’m the kind of driver they should want. But I could lose my job any day because of a pothole.”

Bibb noted that one fairly typical winter day involved waiting nine hours for a phone call, then driving 10 hours through a snowstorm to La Crosse, Wisc. ​“How would you like to pass me on the road in the middle of the night?” he asked.

Two days before the picket, he had gotten a phone call at 12:25 am, picked up a crew at 12:45 am, and finished his shift at 3:30 p.m.

UE International representative Mark Meinster noted that until the drivers unionized this winter, they weren’t even getting legally mandated breaks. Along with other contract demands the union is pushing the company to respect mandatory eight-hour rest periods and to pay workers for time spent servicing and washing their vans and swapping vans with driving partners. The union says the fact they are not currently paid for this time constitutes wage theft.

“These are hours people are working and not getting paid for,” said Meinster. He noted they have made ​“some progress” on workplace policies and other issues in negotiations, but that is all tentative until the company meets their economic demands including paid sick days and rest time.

​“It’s a matter of safety, they’re having to go to work sick,” said Meinster.

The workers say they do their best despite the low pay and disrespect from management. ​“Even though we’re not being paid anything, we go out of our way for the crews because we know them and we care about them,” Ramos said.

The Renzenberger workers say they appreciate the enthusiastic support they’ve gotten from many railroad employees, though they can’t help but notice the crews they chauffeur make $40,000 to $60,000 or more per year, while they typically earn less than half that. Not to mention the railroad companies themselves are poised for massive expansion and new investment.

​“There’s only one way for this to end,” said Tim Fox, 42. ​“With them giving us not what we want, but what we need.”