TOPEKA, Kan. — Rob Cunningham fears that if Topeka doesn’t get its act together, the city will continue to lose good-paying jobs in its manufacturing sector, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.
The Topeka resident was one of 91 Burlington Northern and Santa Fe shop employees let go Monday.
Cunningham noted that since last August, BNSF has cut 250 jobs from the shops, representing about $9.8 million in payroll. Shop employees earn around $19 an hour.
“It’s devastating for Topeka,” Cunningham said.
BNSF made the cuts citing a lack of demand for locomotive power because of a slowdown in the economy.
Steve Forsberg, spokesman for BNSF, said the railroad was abolishing 86 of the 414 jobs at the Topeka locomotive shops. BNSF is releasing 41 machinists, 17 electricians, nine sheet metal workers, eight boilermakers, five laborers, four structures employees and two cab carpenters. Another five apprentice electricians will be furloughed when they complete their apprenticeships within 90 days.
Employees were given five days pay, plus four months medical coverage. Furloughed employees can be recalled if demand for locomotive repairs increases, but the near-term future doesn’t look rosy.
“The reduced rail traffic volumes and improved management trends that led to furloughs at the shop last August are continuing,” said a statement from Forsberg. “BNSF currently has more than 500 locomotives in storage, and demand for locomotive repairs continues to decline. Given those trends, BNSF has enough locomotives in service to meet its customers’ needs and will, therefore, make fewer locomotive repairs as part of its continuing cost-control measures.”
Also Monday, the company cut 50 of the 429 jobs at its West Burlington, Iowa, locomotive shop.
Last August, BNSF laid off 59 employees at the Topeka shops. Then in January, the company announced it was transferring 100 car-repair jobs to Lincoln from Topeka.
“While our mayor was in Russia, the mayor of Lincoln was making business deals with BNSF,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham, 37, and his wife, Courtney, and their five children live in Topeka. He has worked three years at the BNSF shops, but said some affected employees have more than 10 years experience.
Cunningham said he could see the cuts coming and decided to look for work in the Kansas City area.
Some BNSF employees are considering switching careers and going into truck driving, Cunningham said. Trucking companies have taken work away from freight trains over the past 40 years.
Cunningham said Topeka doesn’t have enough jobs that pay a comparable wage to what the city is losing at BNSF. Cunningham recalled that there was a diesel mechanic job posted in the classified section of The Topeka Capital-Journal recently, and six of his colleagues said they were going to apply for the same job.
Cunningham said he has a job interview later this week and anticipates moving his family from Topeka.
Mayor Butch Felker said he was disappointed with the news about BNSF.
Felker said some Kansas legislators don’t want to provide more financial incentives for business retention because the state has a $700 million budget shortfall and needs all the revenue it can find.
Nebraska has many more financial incentives than Kansas, making it difficult for Kansas to compete, he said
“The mayor in Lincoln can do more than we can. They always come out ahead of us,” Felker said.
The two-day trip to Russia that Cunningham mentioned helped secure a Russian art exhibit for Topeka.
Cunningham said the state’s budget shortfall will get worse as the furloughed BNSF employees go off the payroll and cut their personal spending.
The $9.8 million in lost payroll from the BNSF shops since August will amount to a $29.6 million loss to the area economy, Felker said. That is based on a conservative view of the money changing hands three times in the local economy before it goes elsewhere.
BNSF has been conducting an internal study of the shops in Topeka for the past three months.
The good news is the company will maintain the shops in Topeka, Forsberg said. Nothing else is being transferred out of Topeka, he said.
Last week, the company moved Calvin Hobbs, shop superintendent, to Alliance, Neb. His replacement hasn’t been named yet. Gary Parsons, of the North Town Locomotive shops in Minneapolis, will come to Topeka in the interim.
The Topeka shops’ beginnings can be traced to Cyrus Holliday, founder of the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe Railway and a founder of Topeka. After the first track for the railroad was laid at Topeka in 1868, the railroad purchased some idle shops and land for $19,600 in 1878 from J.R. Mulvane and Theo Terry. In 1911, the shops became famous for building what a local newspaper claimed was the largest steam locomotive in the world, the Mallet articulated locomotive.
In the past two decades, Topeka has lost more than 2,400 manufacturing jobs. In 1980, the two major employers — Santa Fe and Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. — employed a total of 5,794 people in Topeka. Now the two companies employ 3,350 in Topeka. If those jobs were still around today, they would have provided $96 million in annual payroll at current pay scales.
“It’s tough to keep the major old-line companies,” Felker said.
The city will continue to work with Goodyear and BNSF to maintain employment, Felker said.
Felker said BNSF officials are scheduled to meet with city and economic development officials soon.
Times of change
Monday — BNSF announces plan to cut 86 jobs and five apprentice electricians from the Topeka locomotive shops.
January 2002 — BNSF announces it is closing the freight car repair shops in Topeka and transferring 100 employees to Lincoln, Neb., over a 90-day period.
October 2001 — About 30 managers of BNSF in Topeka lose their jobs as a result of a companywide layoff of 400 people.
August 2001 — BNSF eliminates 59 jobs in its locomotive repair shops in Topeka because of a slowdown in the economy.
June 2001 — Matt Rose, president and chief executive officer, says the company is in industrial recession and will look for ways to use technology to improve efficiency.
January 2001 — BNSF announces plans to cut 120 jobs in the general office building in Topeka over a two-year period.