Collectors punch-in?

Hi,

I'm new in the training program and I have a question. They tell me that they are putting "CRONIS" machines in each terminal and that new most employees will swipe my pass whenever I get to a terminal where I change trains on my collector assignments.

They said when I finish at a terminal I may have to go back to my starting point to swipe in or I will be shorted pay. They siad I didn't have to go back but then I would only be paid to the last swipe station. Do older collectors and conductors have to go back to their start-out terminals even though they don't have to swipe? They also told me that motormen dont have to swipe there passes. If they dont have to punch into terminals how does bosses know that they are there?

Maybe someone with more experience can answer some o f my questions. I used to work at a bank where we never had to punch a timeclock and Im new to all this stuff.

Joanne

Its called KRONOS and its basically a computerized & networked time clock.

Joanne, at this time we do not have to swipe in or out. I doubt very much they would put that in place for Conductors or Assistant Conductors, or collectors. It just would not be practical. There are too many service disruptions when we are sent all over the railroad, and it would not be practical to make us come back to our original terminal. We do not have to swipe in anywhere. To acsess the trainmans room in NY, there is a place to swipe your pass to get in the door, but usually that is disabled, or if it works usually one person will swipe the pass, and a whole group will go in. I guess the powers that be might try it down the line, but right now it is not being done.

They told us our class will be probably be the first to have to use these.

Training told us that during service disruptions it would make sure that we get paid for all the trains we work and since we get paid back to our terminals it would make sure we get paid for the right train that we can take.

They said some of upper management feels that collectors dont always go where they are supposed to, so this way they will only be paid for the trains they really work.

Sounds like a fair idea to me. As long as you go where you are supposed to go you get paid!! Only a deadbeat slacker loser would have any problem with that!!!

Joanne

Joanne wrote:...Sounds like a fair idea to me. As long as you go where you are supposed to go you get paid!! Only a deadbeat slacker loser would have any problem with that!!!
Joanne

I have not heard any rumurs about this around campus, but it would not be surprise me.

Joanne, true there are slackers and yes ,of course, they would have a problem with this. However, keep in mind that as someone just starting out with the RR and you are still somewhat unfamilier with our work rules , crew assignments , and to put it simply, how things work out in the field. Once you gain a better understanding of these things you will see how such a system could also be unfair to those who do their jobs properly, depending on how it is implemented.
On any given day, even if there are no service disruptions and everything is running on time, there is the possibilty that you will finish at a Terminal other then the one you started out. This can happen for a number of reasons and as you stated we get paid back to were we started. Say for example that you are on a NY job and for whatever reason ,you are out of assignmnet and instructed to cover the balance of a Babylon job. If the system could be set up in such a way that you can swipe out at Babylon and put a claim in for the next deadhead back to NY the I don't see a problem with it. If it is set up so that, using the same scenerio, you have to deadhead all the way back to NY to swipe out then people will have a problem with it,( even non slackers)
That being said the RR is going to do what they are going to do, my rantings be damned, so people wll have to adjust to it.
(If it is true)

Bluebelly,

I don't understand. Why would anyone have a problem with deadheading back to where they started if they are getting paid? In training, they said we don't have to deadhead back if we don't want to -- we just woun't get paid for that train. That sounds fair to me. The other way is like stealing. Why should they pay you to ride on a train if you go home instead? Now I see why they are putting in the time clocks. The more I learn about this job the more I see how much conductors get away with. I never had a job like this!!!! - Joanne

On MNCR the swipe in for T&E was rejected on basis we get paid for runs as they are in runbook, not as how the clock reads.
I bid a job say with deadhead on one end, maybe I don't want to deadhead home by train but ride with a fellow employee in his car home and get break on time.
The Railroad can not make me ride a train that I don't work but is still obligated to pay me till Im at home terminal (by company means)

One has to begin to wonder if Joanne is really a collecter.

KRONOS has been in effect for years now in the M of E department with Car Insprs. and Coach Cleaners. Workers who report and end 100 % of the time at the same place.

There will probably come a time in the future when the technolgy is available that you will be able to (or need to) swipe in transportation department jobs, but more than likely you were simply told by the training department "what may come in the future".

Like Dutch , you will have a "home terminal" rule too. But I am retired now and who knows maybe George Orwell (author of "1984") now has a job with the MTA.

Joanne wrote:Bluebelly,

I don't understand. Why would anyone have a problem with deadheading back to where they started if they are getting paid? In training, they said we don't have to deadhead back if we don't want to -- we just woun't get paid for that train. That sounds fair to me. The other way is like stealing. Why should they pay you to ride on a train if you go home instead? Now I see why they are putting in the time clocks. The more I learn about this job the more I see how much conductors get away with. I never had a job like this!!!! - Joanne

When your sitting in Penn Station at 3 am and have to wait 2 hrs for a train home because you finished up at an eastern terminal and decided to deadhead back to Penn to swipe out you'll understand.
The really good part is that since your rest will start when you swipe out, if you swipe at 3am your availble to work at 11am. So even though on paper you have enough rest, in reality you will have just enough time to go home. clean up after the dog because you werent there to walk it 5 hrs ago, shower,change into fresh uniform and catch your deadhead back to NY. Paying us back is like a "penalty' the RR pays for using a crew to cover another crews assignment. So that if your working a Penn collectors job and they need you to work on the dual mode to Speonk, You say to yourself "Hey no problem. But if they want to strand me in the middle of nowhere for 2 hrs (which is how long you will have to wait at Speonk for the next westbound) by forcing me to cover some one elses job it's gonna cost them a few bucks."
If the real purpose of this is to to ensure that people are working the trains that the are getting paid to work (which I am assuming from your post is how it is being presented to you), then implementing it the way I described in my prior post, swiping out where you actually finish and submiting a claim for the deadhead, would serve that purpose. Though people will still complain the truth is the RR certainly has the right , if not the responsiblity to the taxpayers to ensure that people are doing the job for which they are getting paid.
However if it is going to be done the way you discribed so that you don't get paid back unless you actually go back, it sounds to me like a creative way for the MTA to try to save money by attempting by circumvent negotiated work rules. Namely the home terminal rule . They hope that since must people live on the east end they will not bother to deadhead back to NY if they go out of assignment and finish in an outlying terminal. Thus relieving the MTA from fulfilling their contractual obligation of paying a crew back to where it we started.

I'm in agreement with BMC.

I think the poster is someone messing around.

"She" doesn't talk like a railroader. Who refers to fellow employees as "slacker deadbeats" when they themselves are new on the job and don't yet know anyone or the system fully?

Also, the number of recorded posts is another giveaway. New poster . . . new identity? Hmmmmmm . . . . . . . .

Besides . . anyone who's ever deadheaded and has had the opportunity to "jump ship" along the way usually does for the sake of convenience. AND I'm speaking from personal experience AND I did get paid to the end of my deadhead run.

Jumping ship at Patchogue at 1:15 am deadheading back from a Montauk run rather than riding all the way into Jamaica only to wait around the deserted Jamaica platforms for the first train back to Ronkonkoma at about 4:00 am to get home only to turn around and come back in again with no sleep or food, for my next run doesn't usually qualify one as a deadbeat slacker.

Dave

Dave you and BMC maybe right, however she did not say she is a railroader, she said she just started training. So if true she is not yet an employee and wouldn't be talking like one of us yet. She wouldn't know the lingo.
On a side note I have thought about putting together a dictionary of LIRR slang for the benifit of new employees.What do you think about that?

Sounds like a great idea!

Someting like that would be a big help to newcomers, trying to understand stuff that is considered just ordinary language to established employees.

Also, various places and/or sidings had their nicknames years ago, given them by train crews and they just stuck, like the stink track, cripple track, etc. You could add that sort of thing as well!

Dave

I support the idea as well,

I loved watching new yard employees being told about the "bulls pr**K", which is part of the (ahem) coupling mechanism.

Staying with coupling in the yards ..."if it looks good give it a kiss".


Okay, you NY crews what was it meant when the 21 track LIRR Yardmaster told you "down and back" ?

Alright that was an easy one, but maybe not so easy since at the time we used Amtrak drill crews.

We should start a new thread with LIRR examples to help bluebelly's project along.

I agree!

Let's not forget the old standby: "Do Not Hump!"

Dave