(The following article by Kiley Miller was posted on the Burlington Hawkeye website on December 5.)
WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa — Like graffiti on a freight car, State Sen. Tom Courtney thinks job cuts at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe locomotive shops were ugly but unavoidable.
BNSF officials announced intentions Wednesday to shift 89 of the 133 union jobs at the shops to a similar facility in Topeka, Kan., left over from the merger of the railroad giants in 1995.
“Ever since this merger happened, it’s been almost like Santa Fe bought Burlington Northern, rather than Burlington Northern bought Santa Fe,” said Courtney, D?Burlington.
According to the BNSF press release, the shop jobs will be eliminated “no sooner than March 5.” Positions are available in Topeka for all 89 affected employees and Courtney, a long?time union member and labor leader, predicts most will choose to relocate.
“Jobs are so hard to come by, and they need to keep that seniority going,” he said. “It’s one thing to give up your job in your hometown, it’s another to lose 25 years of seniority.”
Disappointment was the word most often repeated by elected officials Wednesday when they learned of the railroad’s decision.
“It is obviously disappointing and contrary to what the company has indicated to us in the past as far as the stability of the company,” Gov. Tom Vilsack said.
Vilsack and Rep. Jim Leach, R?Iowa, gathered with local leaders last December in a show of solidarity at a meeting with BNSF corporate vice presidents. A month later, the company laid off 248 workers at the shops.
Leach spokesman Jeremy Morrison said Wednesday the congressman would be “available for anybody that needs help accessing the resources of the federal government.”
In a telephone interview, Sen. Charles Grassley, R?Iowa, said a member of his staff had been in regular contact with BNSF bosses for the past year, reminding them of the productivity of the Iowa work force and urging them to maintain the shops here.
“About all I can do at this point, since we failed to convince the corporation, is to help anyway we can to make sure the employees get whatever re?employment benefits or training are available from our Department of Labor,” the senator said.
Grassley’s fellow senator from Iowa, Democrat Tom Harkin, also worked to keep the shops in West Burlington.
“The senator was clearly disappointed by the layoffs in January, and he’s disappointed by this decision as well,” Harkin spokeswoman Maureen Knightly said.
Des Moines County supervisor Tim Hoschek called the move of the jobs from the shops another “large hit” to the community, but said he was encouraged that 44 workers will remain.
“These are corporate decisions,” he said. “Big decisions made by large corporations.
“They’ve got to be thinking about it monetarily, and not what impact it has on local people. But what concerns me is losing these jobs and losing the people who, in my opinion, have made the railroad work all these years.”