(The following article by Kelly Kearsley was posted on the News Tribune website on April 4.)
TACOMA, Wash. — BNSF Railway employees plan to protest today a potential deal between the railroad and Tacoma Rail. The employees are scheduled to picket outside the Tacoma Municipal Building before tonight’s city council meeting, which begins at 5 p.m.
The BNSF and the city-owned Tacoma Rail are negotiating whether Tacoma Rail could take over some of the BNSF’s operations in the Tideflats, such as building trains, switching trains and repairing locomotives. The possibility of such a deal has BNSF employees worried they might lose their jobs in Tacoma.
The BNSF employs 200 people in Tacoma, including train crews, track maintenance and locomotive employees, said Gus Melonas, the company’s spokesman. About 50 BNSF operations employees could be affected by the potential deal, said Steven Sanders, with a United Transportation Union local in Tacoma.
“If nothing happens, then the municipal employees keep their jobs and we keep our jobs,” Sanders said. “If there’s a deal, we lose our jobs, fewer people will be employed and personally my local (union) will be decimated.”
The employees could transfer to BNSF jobs in other places, such as Seattle, but wouldn’t be able to stay in Tacoma, Sanders said.
Paula Henry, Tacoma Rail’s superintendent, said Monday that there’s no deal yet.
“People are getting nervous about (the) issue way before they need to,” she said.
BNSF approached Tacoma Rail last year, she said, asking what types of services the city-owned railroad could provide them. Tacoma Rail has three divisions, including its Tideflats division which switches freight between Tideflats businesses and the two major railroads. Other divisions transport goods between the Port of Tacoma and Frederickson, and also switch cars to the mainline in Olympia.
Henry gave the BNSF a list of services it could provide. Many of these the railroad now does itself. Having Tacoma Rail provide the services would make the BNSF more efficient, and bring revenue to Tacoma Rail, she said.
For example, the BNSF trains head to Seattle to be serviced, which causes delays, Henry said. Tacoma Rail could service the trains in Tacoma and save the BNSF time, she said.
Melonas, BNSF’s spokesman, answered few questions about the negotiations, saying it would be premature to speculate.
“We are discussing future transportation needs at Tacoma with various parties including Tacoma Rail. However, nothing has been finalized,” Melonas wrote in an e-mail to The News Tribune.
Tacoma Rail will present information about the negotiations in a joint study session between the Tacoma Public Utility Board and Tacoma City Council on April 18.