BNSF Reduces Workforce in Nebraska and Kansas
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
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Fort Worth, Texas –– BNSF announced this week that it was cutting some jobs at mechanical shops located in Nebraska and Kansas. However, no details about the cuts were provided, such as where they took place or the number of people involved. News reports regarding the number of layoffs differed, but it appears that at least 100 positions were cut.
BNSF issued a statement about the layoffs:
“We work continuously to align our people and resources with customer demand to deliver the industry-leading service our customers expect. This is a necessity for any network business to optimize the operation and run as efficiently as possible,” a railroad representative said in a statement. “While the underlying economy currently lacks clarity, BNSF is pursuing and capturing growth in several areas. We have an imbalance of employees where growth is occurring among some of our mechanical work groups.
“We have team members in locations on the network where there isn’t sufficient work and simultaneously not enough team members where the growth is occurring,” the railroad said. “Work groups must be readjusted to ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to best serve our customers’ current transportation needs and be positioned for future growth.
“There is an urgency as we are seeing this growth now and we want our existing employees to have the opportunity to do the work. To accomplish this, BNSF has offered location transfers with incentives targeted to those locations where there are open positions,” the railroad said. “BNSF has also offered craft transfers for mechanical employees to be retrained for other open positions on the BNSF network. There are currently several hundred open mechanical and engineering positions on our network.”
