Boone, IA -- The hours are irregular, and the work means long days away from home, but 22-year-old Brady Foster is following in his father's footsteps and signing on with the railroad.
The need for young workers like Foster is enormous, as thousands of baby boomers retire and railroad companies see a surge in business. The companies are stepping up recruitment, targeting Iraq war veterans and laid-off factory workers.
"I saw one of my dad's paychecks, and I decided that was for me," said Foster, who chose a career with Union Pacific Railroad Co. over teaching.
The pay is good, up to $40,000 at Union Pacific in the first year. But workers also must endure long travel, as well as night, weekend, and on-call schedules.
Omaha-based Union Pacific, the nation's largest freight carrier, will hire about 6,000 new employees this year, said Roy Schroer, assistant vice president for human resources.
"Our hiring needs have grown dramatically," Schroer said. ". . . Assuming a level economy or a strong economy, we're going to have the need to hire at least 5,000 people a year for the next several years."
The hiring is a marked change from the 1980s, when the railroad industry was in a rapid consolidation, combining the work forces of many railroads and prompting layoffs of some employees, usually on the basis of seniority.
As a result, many railroad companies haven't hired many people until the last few years, as demand increased and workers neared retirement.
BNSF Railway Co. -- the nation's second largest freight railroad, based in Fort Worth, Texas -- faces a similar problem.
"The whole rail industry is an early precursor of the retirement wave baby boomers will cause in many segments of the US economy," said Steven Forsberg, a BNSF spokesman.
By the end of 2006, BNSF will have hired more than 14,000 people over the past four years, he said. Employment has increased from about 36,500 in 2003 to a little over 40,000, he said in a statement. Most of those hires replaced retiring workers, but some were needed due to record volume on the rail line, Forsberg said.
The jobs typically pay well. At Union Pacific, an employee can become a train engineer within three to five years, at a salary of $75,000. The unionized industry also offers good benefits, and workers with 30 years of service can retire at 60.
Many rail workers are hired with little or no education beyond a high school diploma, so many start young and retire early.
Just a few months into his new job with Union Pacific, Foster was training at the company's rail yards in Boone, where 500 of the company's 49,500 employees work. Training has included several weeks of classroom work and memorizing a 500-page book that includes federal regulations, company rules, and safety standards.
To be a conductor, new employees must complete 14 weeks of classroom and on-the-job training. The conductor oversees the train crew and ensures that air hoses, braking systems, and car couplings are properly attached.
Railroad companies are aggressively recruiting from many sources, including college campuses, industries facing layoffs, and the military. Among the new recruits joining Union Pacific are former workers from the closing Maytag Corp. factory in Newton, Iowa, and several former soldiers who served in Iraq.
Email This Page!