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Re: (erielack) Anniversary



The thing that has never really been brought out is
that all of those nice shinny blue and white
locomotives and cabooses caused a social up heaval
that ripped apart families and caused people to move
not only throught out the states serviced by Conrail
but throughout the United States just to keep a job to
take care of their families. There was a lot of
injustice associated with ConRail and how people where
treated.
Bob Stafford

- --- Smtimko_@_aol.com wrote:

> Ed and listers.........
>  
> An issue that had much more lasting effects on the
> EL people than the  actual 
> Conrail Day 1 was the seniority issue for trainmen
> and to somewhat of a  
> lesser degree, the engineers.
>  
> I don't profess to be an expert on the dates or the
> actual agreement(s) but  
> when Conrail started closing yards and consolidating
> terminal operations, the  
> job selections went to an Order Selection list.  It
> had nothing to do with  
> the actual physical location of the yard, but the
> area in which it was  located.
>  
> For instance, the EL yard at Niles, Ohio was closed
> as was the PC (PRR)  yard 
> and Goodman Yard at Lordstown was the consolidated
> terminal.  EL crews  had 
> certain picks or order of selection for certain jobs
> as did the PC  crews.
>  
> Brier Hill and NK Yards were closed in Youngstown,
> the PC yards at Mcguffey  
> Street was closed and everything was consolidated
> into the former PC Haselton  
> Yard.  The consolidated terminal included the former
> EL Ferrona Yard.   There 
> was an order of selection for the jobs in the
> Youngstown Consolidated  
> Terminal.  Youngstown went something like this: 
> (Don't hold me to it,  but I 
> believe this is correct). 1.  Former EL Ferrona
> Yard, 2 Former NYC  Yard, 3 Former 
> EL Road, 4 Former PRR yard, 5 Former Brier Hill
> Yard.  If  you had the former 
> (Prior Rights) seniority, you could pick a job as
> defined  above.
>  
> A 40 year vet of PRR could bid and be awarded job 1,
> (former EL Ferrona  
> Yard), but he could be bumped off by a former EL
> Yard switchman with three years  
> seniority!  This resulted in very mixed feelings
> between crew members in a  
> terminal, a headache for the local supervision, a
> nightmare for Labor Relations  
> and a mountain of paperwork and timeslips for T&E
> Payroll  verification.  
> Also, it resulted in the Local Chairman not being
> able to  satisfy anyone.  
> Thirty years ago this month, the EL crews in
> Youngstown,  Ferrona and Niles 
> probably had 20 yard jobs a day and the PRR probably
> had about  8-10.
>  
> Because of this order of selection process and the
> Prior Right rosters,  many 
> EL trainman from Brier Hill ended up working for
> years and years in such  
> places as Oak Island, Altoona and New Haven.  I
> don't believe that the EL  guys 
> ever received their original seniority date back
> until Conrail was  dissolved.  
>  
> While the basics of the above is correct, some of
> the minor details may not  
> be and I invite corrections and/or additions from
> some of the former Local  
> Chairmen that are on the list.
>  
> SMT
> 
> 
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