Union Pacific’s closure of Palestine car shop – District Judge says not so fast . . .

Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief

The Palestine Herald-Press reports there is more drama surrounding the proposed closure of Union Pacific's Palestine car shop.

So far this year, RT&S has reported on Union Pacific’s plans to close their car shop in Palestine, Texas, eliminating the 57 jobs at the facility. We originally reported the pending closure on April 16, and that report can be found here. Last week, we reported on UP’s plans to close the shop a few days early, and that report can be found here.

Today, we learned that Judge Michael Davis, who presides over the Cherokee County District Court, has decided to rule on the questions around closure on a later date.

The city of Palestine and Anderson County point out that Union Pacific has been out of compliance with a 1955 judgement between the local government and UP that requires UP to provide Palestine with monthly payroll reports and employment numbers, which the railroad has not done since December 2020.

Judge Davis ruled that a hearing will be held on Thursday, July 8 to determine whether UP has yet provided the information since December 2020. Until this hearing has been completed, the court ruled that UP could not eliminate any jobs. No other aspects of the lawsuit received a ruling.

Union Pacific balked at the July 8 date because of other commitments on that date, but the judge told the parties they needed to agree on a date for the hearing to be scheduled.

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