A couple of UP ?'s

1. Does UP have system wide seniority like BNSF or is it localized?
2. If hired on as conductor, are you assigned to road jobs or yard jobs and will never do the other, or can you bid on anything?

Thanks

1) Seniority is based on your service unit, not systemwide.

2) You can bid on anything your seniority can hold, providing you are qualified for the job.

Does that then mean that a transfer is very difficult to get?

Yeah, it's tough. You have to find someone where you want to go and hope they want to come where you are. You then have to get all kinds of management approval. I see postings every now and then for people looking to trade spots, but I've never actually met anyone who has succesfully done it. Apply for where you want to work, because chances are that's where you'll be.

Steel is right. It is tough. I know of one guy here in the Utah service unit who traded with a guy from the Roseville service unit. It took about 2 months for the union chairmen to get them processed through to transfer. Both the local unions have to vote to allow the guys to trade, and also the manager of CMS (crew services) has to authorize it. The guy who swapped out from Roseville had a higher senority date by about a year, and took the lower senority date in order to trade out. Good deal for the younger guy though.

Steel...I'm down in Vegas now for the FIT class. They are having a "special" class now where instead of cramming everything into 4 days, it is now two weeks, and the final is on Monday the start of the second week. Go figure. Updates later. The first week is mostly mechanical, and if you have your RCL, it is a good review.

All the best.

I just ran into a guy who transferred from Roseville up to here in Portland because of a family hardship. He's trying to get his old seniority date back, which is kind of a kick in the ass to everyone else here. This is the second hardship case I've heard of, the other one fell through at the last minute.

Slchub, glad to hear that they're taking a little more time to explain things. I may have gotten in to engine service on this bid, I'm waiting to see. Luckily they do the training right here, except for the simulator stuff in Salt Lake. Keep us posted on the training, I'm anxious to see what they do (nobody really knows or cares to explain anything when you ask..)