Keith Fitzhugh is a conductor trainee on Norfolk Southern’s Atlanta North District.
He could be playing football with the New York Jets.
If you think trading a National Football League playbook for an operating employee’s rulebook is something akin to carrying the ball toward your own goal line, think again.
The 24-year-old Fitzhugh — who has made application for UTU membership when he completes his probationary period in January — knows the value of steady work and regular paychecks in an economy thrown for a loss. “You can have a fine living working for the railroad,” Fitzhugh said.
Cut by the Jets pre-season, Fitzhugh responded to an early December invitation to return as a defensive back with a polite, “thanks, but no thanks.”
Fitzhugh began conductor training with NS in September, established seniority in November, and looks forward to membership in UTU Local 511 in Atlanta. He was raised in nearby Hampton, Ga.
“For me, having job security is important,” said Fitzhugh, who is helping to support his disabled father, a former truck driver. “I was released three times [twice by the Jets, once by the Baltimore Ravens]. There is no job security [in the National Football League]. Why risk losing a good job with Norfolk Southern? I have buddies with two degrees who can’t find a job.
“Working for Norfolk Southern is one of the best prestigious jobs you can have,” Fitzhugh said. “I don’t want to give up what I have now, go back to playing football a couple of weeks and then be released again. I have to look out for what’s best for me and my family.”
“To sacrifice what he did for his family is the most unselfish thing I’ve heard by a player in sports,” Fitzhugh’s agent told the Associated Press.
“I think riding on a locomotive is one of the coolest things,” Fitzhugh said. “I talked with my parents about it. They have always thought highly of Norfolk Southern, where it’s safety first.”
Fitzhugh, a standout safety at Mississippi State University, was signed by the Jets in 2009. He was named by USA Today as one of the top 200 college football players in the nation, and played as a senior in the East-West Shrine Bowl. At Mississippi State, he earned a degree in communications, with a minor in marketing.
Fitzhugh
Tag: Norfolk Southern
A Norfolk Southern sought lease of trackage to a newly created short line railroad in Michigan is being opposed by the UTU and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, which represent affected train and engine workers.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) is being asked by the UTU and the BLET to revoke an exemption from regulatory review previously provided a proposed transaction of NS and Adrian & Blissfield Rail Road, a holding company intending to create a new shortline to lease and operate almost 45 miles of NS track near Lansing.
The new short line, to be called Jackson & Lansing, is expected — as is the case with virtually all upstart shortlines — to hire a new workforce that will be paid lower wages and benefits than NS now pays the five trainmen, three engineers and three other employees now assigned to that trackage by NS.
The UTU and the BLET are asking the STB to revoke a previously granted STB exemption that would permit the transaction to move to completion without regulatory scrutiny. Such exemptions are permitted if the STB is satisfied that neither competition, continued rail service, safety nor other so-called public interest considerations will be jeopardized as a result of the transaction.
In fact, STB Vice Chairman Frank Mulvey filed a dissent in the previous 2-1 decision granting the exemption, saying that the outward written commitments imposed by the parties require more information, “particularly when they contain outright bans on interchange with third party carriers or, as here, economic incentives that can only be evaluated with the provision of additional information.”
Specially, the UTU and the BLET ask the STB to reconsider its granting of the exemption for the following reasons:
- Competition and reasonable rates: The transaction, as proposed, would exclude third party carriers (other than NS) from operating over the line, and limit interchange to and from other carriers. Also, the transaction, as proposed, appears to limit competition in order that Jackson & Lansing be able to increase freight rates to fund upgrades to the leased track and facilities. This would be in violation of congressionally imposed national rail transportation policy that supports rail-to-rail competition and fair and reasonable freight rates.
- Safety: The so-far known facts of the transaction suggest it is highly unlikely either the holding company or its shortline, Jackson & Lansing, currently have sufficient funds and cash flow to upgrade the leased track and facilities to provide safe and reasonably timely operations. As expected carloadings will contain industrial waste, track and rail operating safety must be of significant concern.
- Fair wages and working conditions: In the current economy — especially in Michigan, where unemployment is twice the national average — the affected employees and their families, and the State of Michigan, will suffer significant economic harm. By granting an exemption from regulatory scrutiny, the STB is permitting the transaction to move forward without imposing labor protection.
This also would violate national rail transportation policy, as it requires “fair wages and suitable working conditions.” The STB is obligated to consider (which can only be done by revoking the exemption and investigating the transaction) whether the new entity will impose substandard wages and working conditions, thereby significantly circumventing the terms and conditions of current collective bargaining agreements under which the affected employees are now covered.
Click here to read the joint UTU/BLET filing.
By Assistant President Arty Martin and
GS&T Kim Thompson
Among the most difficult challenges facing us in 2009 arrives in November, when we exchange Railway Labor Act Section 6 notices with the carriers — the list of each side’s demands for the next collective bargaining round.
Our national rail contract is open for renewal on Jan. 1, 2010, and this upcoming bargaining round will be among our toughest ever given the deteriorating state of the national economy, the advance of technology and Wall Street pressure on railroads to deliver increased profits.
While the national rail contract affects members on only BNSF, CSX, Kansas City Southern, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific, these national contracts tend to be a trend setter for bargaining on other freight railroads and Amtrak, and are frequently referred to by commuter railroads.
A reasonable individual might have good reason to assume the upcoming bargaining round will be favorable to employees. After all, railroads are among today’s few solidly profitable industries in America, and Wall Street confirms they have unprecedented pricing power. Moreover, the carriers continue to improve productivity, and it is the workers — especially operating craft employees — who are most responsible.
Indeed, the railroads’ own figures, as published by the Association of American Railroads, show that revenue ton-miles per employee — the best benchmark for measuring productivity — has soared five-fold since 1980, from 2.1 million revenue ton-miles per employee to almost 11 million revenue ton-miles per employee today.
Accordingly, the railroads’ labor costs have declined by 43 percent — from 46.5 cents of every revenue dollar in 1980, to 26.4 cents of every revenue dollar today.
This is because the employee headcount has dropped from 532,000 in 1980 to 236,000 today — a 56 percent decline in workers, while productivity has soared. Among train and engine service employees, the head count fell from almost 136,000 in 1980 to fewer than 70,000 train and engine service employees today.
Unfortunately, none of this matters to the carriers at the bargaining table, because it is hot Wall Street dollars that set the tone of carrier Section 6 notices.
Perhaps you have noticed Wall Street investment funds have been buying up shares of the major railroads.
BNSF, for example, is 46 percent owned by Wall Street investment funds. At CSX, the figure is 35 percent; at Union Pacific, 34 percent; at Kansas City Southern, 33 percent; and at Norfolk Southern, 32 percent, according to Bloomberg News.
These investment funds, some of them based in foreign countries, have a narrow focus of increasing stock price and increasing dividend payouts — often without concern to an appropriate level of railroad maintenance, and certainly without concern for employees and their families.
For sure, investment funds are behind the anti-labor policies at Wal-Mart and policies that export good American jobs overseas.
What a labor union does is to fight back — and the UTU will be spending the months leading up to the exchange of Section 6 notices by building our case on behalf of our members.
Who Owns the Railroads
| BNSF | |
| Berkshire Hathaway | 21.8% |
Capital Research Global | 5.6% |
Barclays Global | 3.3% |
UBS Global | 3.0% |
Vanguard Group | 2.8% |
State Street Corp. | 2.7% |
Fidelity Mgt. | 2.4% |
Capital World Invest. | 1.7% |
JP Morgan Chase | 1.2% |
Barrow, Hanley | 1.2% |
Total | 45.7% |
CSX | |
Citigroup | 5.4% |
Barclays Global | 4.7% |
Children’s Invest. Fund | 4.5% |
3G Capital | 4.4% |
Deutsche Bank | 4.2% |
| State Street Corp. | 3.6% |
Vanguard Group | 3.2% |
Tiger Global | 1.9% |
Bank of N.Y. | 1.6% |
| JP Morgan Chase | 1.3% |
Total | 34.8% |
KCS | |
Neuberger Berman | 6.2% |
Wellington Mgt. | 5.7% |
Marathon Asset Mgt. | 4.1% |
| Barclays Global | 3.6% |
Vanguard Group | 3.0% |
| Keeley Asset Mgt. | 2.8% |
Bank of America | 2.4% |
| Prudential | 1.9% |
Munder Capital Mgt. | 1.9% |
AXA | 1.8% |
| Total | 33.4% |
| Norfolk Southern | |
Capital Research Global | 5.0% |
Marsico Capital Mgt. | 4.8% |
JP Morgan Chase | 4.7% |
Barclays Global | 4.5% |
State Street Corp. | 3.2% |
Vanguard Group | 3.1% |
Fidelity Mgt. | 2.7% |
Pioneer Investment | 1.3% |
Dimensional Fund | 1.3% |
Capital World Invest. | 1.1% |
Total | 31.7% |
Union Pacific | |
Marsico Capital Mgt. | 6.6% |
Children’s Invest. Fund | 4.7% |
Barclays Global | 4.4% |
Capital World Invest. | 3.4% |
State Street Corp. | 3.2% |
Vanguard Group | 3.0% |
AXA | 2.9% |
Fidelity Mgt. | 2.5% |
Bank of America | 1.9% |
Berkshire Hathaway | 1.8% |
Total | 34.4% |
Source: Bloomberg News