March 8, 2012

Matt Wilson
General Chairman BLET BNSF (CB&Q/NP/GN/SP&S)
801 Cherry St., Suite 1010, Unit 8
Fort Worth, TX 76102

Alan Holdcraft
General Chairman BLET BNSF (ATSF)
101 N. Beverly St.
Crowley, TX 76028

Rick Gibbons
General Chairman BLET BNSF (SLSF)
PO Box 28066
Kansas City, MO 64188

Bobby Brown
General Chairman BLET BNSF (CRI&P/FWD/C&S)
7637 Canyon Drive
Amarillo, TX 79110
 

Gentlemen:

This letter is in response to your concerns, voiced via January 25, 2012 letter to this office regarding the recent change in calling procedures. Let me begin by stating that I certainly understand your concerns, and note that this decision was not reached in haste. It was made, however, after weighing all factors including advancement of technology and our service goals.

To begin, BNSF would like to reiterate that no agreement or rule provision exists guaranteeing an employee who is subject to call any amount of "grace period" prior to that employee being shown as missing a call for service. In fact GCOR Rule 1.16, Subject to Call, states:

BNSF does not dispute that the "grace period" window given to employees prior to the recording of a miss call has been 20 minutes for many years. However, as stated in your letter, this practice began when employees did not have the advantage of cell phones, or even pagers, and were restricted to the use of land lines. Employees did not have the ability or opportunity, as they do now, to leave their calling place in order to "tend to routine business and family affairs" and still be able to be contacted for service. Since this practice began, nearly every TYE employee has obtained at least one cell phone, and most list multiple contact numbers in their employee screens. BNSF calls each listed contact number when calling that employee for service. Also, BNSF continuously works to improve technology regarding ability to access line-ups remotely; in addition employees now have access to "push" technology which notifies employees via text message of line-up changes in excess of 30 minutes.

BNSF's volume of business continues to increase nearly every year, thereby increasing the number of employees that need to be called for service. When the primary employee (i.e. first out pool or extra board employee standing for call) misses that call for service, Crew Support then has to begin the process of finding an alternate employee to protect that service. By allowing the primary employee a 20-minute grace period; should that employee miss the call for service then it is likely that a delay in "manning" that service will occur. For example, at a location where a 90-minute call window exists, if the primary employee misses a call for service, Crew Support then has only 70 minutes to secure another employee for service. Even if another employee is secured immediately if that employee cannot, or will not, report as quickly as possible at least a 20-minute delay to the time BNSF needed a crew to report for service has occurred. If Crew Support has to canvas employees to fill that position, then even more delay occurs. As you know, BNSF places a high priority on providing timely service to its customers. It is this focus that resulted in decision that this change in practice needed to occur.

Since BNSF initiated communication on this change in practice, we have received numerous complaints about how this change may cause issues. However, we have received no examples where it has actually caused an issue. Since we began the new practice, there has been no noticeable increase in the number of employee's missing a call for service. If an employee, or employees, experiences a legitimate delay caused by an issue with the VRU, then we welcome being notified of those examples so we can research the issue and weigh if any reconsideration of the new practice is necessary.

BNSF ensured that this initiative was communicated with all of the Organization representatives prior to this change occurring. However, we believe that the change is within the purview of BNSF; and it was necessary to further our ever present efforts toward improved customer service.

With all of the above noted BNSF is willing to compromise and set the new "grace period" at 15 minutes. This is not a guarantee at that some point in the future the "grace period" will not be changed to a lesser amount of time.

/s/ Milton Siegele

Cc:  Jeff Wright
        Michael Shircliff
        Rob Riley
        Brad Henry
        Bobby PechaI
        Dave Adams