Ok, Pete the Montgomery Tower story reminded me of two others that are true
and from the BRT greivance files. I don't have the files in front of me but
here are the main points. If I told these before I apologize for the repeats.
One morning (1948) the brakeman on an assigned work train at Oregon
woke,prepared breakfast(this is back in the wooden assigned w/c days) and
prepared the
train for another day of track work along the C&I starting about 6AM. But the
Conductor was not around and hadn't been seen since they tied up the night
before.
This was a short armed crew so the lone brkmn was on his own. Being a vet and
a true brother he simply went about the business as if the Conductor was
present and everything was going along fine.
Around 10AM the Cond. showed up and when asked where he had been simply
replied he had some personal business to attend to in town.
Unfortunately the Conductors personal business made the next edition of the
paper and was brought to managements attention. Seems the Conductor had a
thirst after work and after cleaning up went up town for a few refreshments.
Upon
satisifying his thirst he was walking back to the way car to get his rest when
the Oregon police took exception to his inability to navigate very well. He
spent the night in a cell and was fined the next morning after going before the
judge. He paid the fine and went to work.
Q management held an investigation which is like few I've ever read or been
involved in. This Conductor answered all the usual filler questions about
name,rank,serial number,etc. It took many exchanges before the record was
documented where and why the Conductor had been AWOL.
When asked had he violated rule G he stated no. When asked if he had brought
unfavorable attention to the railroad he argued that he had not as he was off
duty and therefore his personal time was not the RRs concern. He felt he had
not brought unwelcome attention to the RR, had completed his tour of duty and
no incidents had followed since that time. He even reasoned that while he was a
few hours late for work the track work had not been delayed. He argued
eloquently and I thought very convincingly that there really was no cause to
have
an investigation and that it should be closed and he allowed to return to work
w/o any further proceedings.
Management didn't see it that way. The hearing officer recommended time off
and the next two layers on Jackson Blvd in Chicago concurred.
When I think back to the number of similar situations I saw w/o any fallout
or notice by mgmt I really felt sorry for the guy. Then when I compare it to
todays total intolerance of any kind of Rule G violation,random testing,etc it
really highlights how far the industry has come and safer it is.
Leo
2nd story on another email
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