LINCOLN, Neb. — Just days after lamenting the eventual loss of more than a third of the jobs at the local Goodyear plant, Mayor Don Wesely Friday announced “a good day in Lincoln” as Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad disclosed plans to move its freight car repair operation to Lincoln, the Lincoln Journal Star reports.
In addition to the April transfer of 100 jobs from Topeka, Kan., to the railroad’s Havelock shops, sixty more jobs will be added by the end of the year, a company official said.
The announcement apparently came as a balm to the mayor and others worried about the local economy.
On Tuesday he and the rest of the city learned that Goodyear will be removing more than 480 jobs from its plant over the next two years. An economist said that the loss of nearly $17 million in Goodyear payroll could cost the city 100 more jobs as the loss trickled down.
Burlington Northern gave the International Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, the union that represents the repair workers, notice that it intends to move the work to Lincoln in 90 days. The union’s contract requires that management allow that length of time.
The 100 Burlington Northern employees in Topeka will be offered the opportunity to relocate to Lincoln and keep their jobs, railroad spokesman Steve Forsberg said. The positions pay between $35,000 and $40,000 a year. The 60 new local jobs will be entry-level.
Forsberg said the move will allow the railroad greater efficiency. About 70 percent of the railroad’s heavy repair work is done in Havelock, compared with about 10 percent in Topeka. The remaining 20 percent is contracted out.
“It seemed to us that we could improve our efficiency by consolidating” repair operations, Forsberg said. “Havelock seemed to be the natural place to do that.”
Burlington Northern employs about 4,000 people in Nebraska, including 1,400 in Lincoln. The railroad has had a presence in Lincoln for more than a century – the Havelock shops were established in 1869, the same year the city was incorporated.
“Burlington has been an excellent corporate citizen,” Wesely said. “We are very appreciative of the company’s continued investment in Lincoln.”