OMAHA — A labor union representing train engineers filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the Union Pacific Railroad Co. of Omaha from using remote-controlled locomotives without trained and certified engineers, reports the Omaha World-Herald.
The suit was filed by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in U.S. District Court in Denver. It seeks a judge’s order to halt the use of remote-controlled locomotives in switching yards.
Union Pacific introduced remote-controlled locomotives in April at switching yards – where trains are assembled – in Des Moines and Hinkle, Ore. The locomotives are operated from the ground by switchmen rather than train engineers.
Union General Chairman Michael Young said the remote-controlled locomotives will eliminate engineer jobs and pose a safety threat to rail employees and the public.
He also said the introduction of remote-controlled locomotives represented a “drastic, arbitrary change in work assignments” that should have been subject to negotiation between the union and the company.
The company declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit, but it and the union have been to court before over remote-controlled locomotives.
In January, a federal court judge in a lawsuit filed by Union Pacific and five other railroads to block a union strike over the use of remote-controlled locomotives said their dispute should be settled by arbitration.
Union Pacific has maintained that new technology, including remote-controlled locomotives, will improve the company’s efficiency and provide more job security for all employees.
That was the message that Ivor “Ike” Evans, Union Pacific Railroad’s president and chief operating officer, gave engineers during the company’s annual meeting April 19 in Salt Lake City. Union members picketed the meeting to challenge introduction of remote-controlled locomotives.
Locomotives equipped with remote-control devices are operated from a belt pack. The pack has buttons and controls that let a person, such as a conductor or brakeman, run a train from the ground rather than climbing into the locomotive cab.
Union Pacific has between 8,000 and 9,000 engineers, with about 700 in Nebraska.
U.P. spokesman John Bromley said Wednesday that 70 switchmen have been trained to operate remote-control locomotives. He said the affected engineers were given jobs operating trains elsewhere.
Young of the engineers union said in a press release that the elimination of jobs due to remote-controlled locomotives would force engineers to work “hundreds of miles from their home and away from their families.”
The union also says that six accidents related to remote-controlled locomotives occurred in the month before May 2, four of them involving Union Pacific trains.
Bromley said the minor accidents involving U.P. locomotives were due to human error, not technology.
“There’s been a few accidents involving bumping cars in the yards, but none because of technology,” he said. “One of the drivers for (using remote-control) is safety. … It’s been in use in Canada for several years, and their accident rates in switching yards have been cut dramatically by the use of this technology.”
Bromley said the person switching and uncoupling cars also operates the locomotive. That person does not move the engine until he’s safely off the track, he said.
“That’s where you get the accidents in switching yards – when the engineer may not know where exactly the switchman is, misreads the signal and starts the train, injuring the switchman on the ground,” he said.
The union’s press release said that Union Pacific intends to use remote-control trains in 21 major terminals and 40 satellite locations over the next two years. Bromley would not confirm that.