I've never understood why RR management repeatedly let screw-ups come back to work. It is law that the union must defend and try its best to restore all members rights whether most of the rest of the local thinks the person should be permanently fired or not. So the union has no choice. But the RR managers do. There have been cases where fired employees never got back to work on the RR but those are the exceptions to the norm. Anybody can make a mistake but there are some who never learn yet are restored to service time after time. Frankly I don't want to run against those people, one day their screw-up might kill me. Get rid of them permanently.
Years ago one crew around here failed to tie ANY handbrakes on a coal train they parked on a grade, and then cut off the lead unit to take it to the house without properly cutting in the new lead unit's air brakes. The train rolled off the hill into the yard, collided with the head end of another parked train, destroyed locos, knocked down a large concrete overhead pedestrian bridge, turned over numerous tank cars. The crews' punishment? To show safety films to crews coming on duty for two weeks, with pay. Huh?
AK