(The following story by Jenny Rode appeared on The Battle Creek Enquirer website on May 7.)
BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — A day after rumors ran rampant, details about job cuts and operation changes are becoming clearer for the employees of Grand Trunk Railway System in Battle Creek.
A spokesman from Grand Trunk’s parent company wasn’t sure Thursday how many jobs would be lost in Battle Creek, but city and union sources said:
— Fifty-eight people will lose their jobs here, mostly in mechanical departments.
— Eighty-five locomotive engineers in Battle Creek won’t see major changes — at least not initially.
— The 140 conductors and brakemen here will keep their jobs and their current pay, but half of them with daytime jobs will have new duties that include overnight trips.
Karen Phillips, vice president of U.S. public and government affairs for Canadian National Railway Co., Grand Trunk’s parent, said there may be other work available within the CN system for workers whose positions are cut.
She said the company made the changes to maximize efficiency and the flow of train traffic.
“We routinely look at all our different facilities with an eye toward how to best keep everything efficiently operating, particularly with an eye toward traffic flow,” Phillips said.
The same number of freight trains will be passing through Battle Creek, but mechanical repairs for the non-local, long-distance trains will be done elsewhere, Phillips said.
Union officials raised questions about safety issues, but Phillips said it would not be a problem.
“Safety is paramount for us … and I’m confident there isn’t an adverse safety implication,” she said.
Battle Creek workers losing their jobs have been given 90 days’ notice.
“This is a slap in the face,” said Wayne Morris, a diesel locomotive mechanic with more than 34 years with the railroad and just months to go until retirement.
“We thought we were pretty well set,” said Morris, president of the machinists union representing some of the mechanical workers. “They came down and changed this, and morale literally went into the basement. We had a ring of pride about our work in Battle Creek. … Most of us have been here between 25 and 30 years.”
Morris, a 59-year-old Barry County resident, said he hopes to continue to work for the company until he retires, either on an on-call basis or by transferring.
“I will retire from the rail industry one way or another,” he said. “If I have to, I’ll go to Chicago (for a job), but I don’t want to go. … I’m still at a loss. I don’t know what the heck is going on yet.”
About 70 conductors and brakemen represented by the United Transportation Union won’t lose their jobs, but they will be bracing for change when they become “road men,” said David Hiatt, UTU’s general chairman.
With their daytime work being eliminated, they will begin to make overnight trips as part of their jobs overseeing train operations, Hiatt said.
“It’s more of a lifestyle change than income or job loss,” he said. “Most of them are senior employees with a long time on the railroad, and it’s not the type of job they would choose to work. … They’ll have to get a bag and travel, and they’re not used to it.”
This isn’t the first time railroad jobs in Battle Creek have been cut. Local jobs were lost in 1999 when CN went through two mergers.
“Once they acquired Burlington Northern, they acquired an awful lot of capacity,” which led to reductions at the oldest facilities, including Battle Creek, said Jim Hettinger, president and chief executive officer of Battle Creek Unlimited, the city’s economic development arm.
“The thing that keeps us in the game is the amount of traffic on the NAFTA corridor,” he said.
While a fair amount of businesses are shifting to truck delivery, Hettinger said he didn’t think CN would do anything to jeopardize its local accounts.
That said, it was “kind of amazing” that the job-cut news came out of CN the way it did, given the positive relationships that the city and BCU had with CN, Hettinger said. The city wasn’t contacted by CN until Thursday, Hettinger said; city officials heard Wednesday about the job cuts from the media.
Information from CN was sketchy Wednesday and initial reports were that the entire Battle Creek operation could close.
“Not classy, that’s for sure,” Hettinger said.