POCATELLO, Idaho — Union Pacific Railroad announced Monday it will eliminate 17 positions at the locomotive shop in its Pocatello yard, the latest in a series of cutbacks that began in the mid-1990s, the Idaho State Journal reported.
UP spokesman John Bromley said 15 of the employees affected by the reduction will be transferred. The other two jobs will be abolished. The job transfers and cuts will take place in 90 days.
Bromley called the reduction “part of a larger effort to cut costs and gain efficiencies.” He said the annual pay of those jobs being affected ranges from $41,000 to $45,000.
Since the mid-1990s, UP has reduced its work force here from roughly 1,200 to 602 today. At its height, the railroad employed one out of every four Pocatellans.
Union Pacific is now the Gate City’s third-largest private employer, behind AMI Semiconductor and Convergys, and sixth largest overall.
Bannock County still makes it one of the city’s most important employers.
By comparison, School District 25, which employs 1,376 people, has an annual payroll of $44.5 million.
The railroad is also one of the county’s biggest taxpayers. With a total valuation of $54.9 million in fiscal year 2002 — second in Bannock County only to AMIS — UP paid $796,229 in taxes to the county.
Bromley said no further cuts in Pocatello are planned, but he added the railroad will continue to look for ways to reduce costs here and elsewhere.
“It’s safe to say with the competitive pressures showing no signs of letting up, I suspect we’ll be looking wherever we can for (opportunities to cut costs) elsewhere in the system,” he said. At the same time, Union Pacific reported last year was one of its most profitable.
Those positions being transferred — locomotive repair jobs — will end up in either Salt Lake City, Hinckle, Ore., or North Platte, Neb.
City leaders expressed no consolation that the cuts were modest compared with previous ones or that 15 of the jobs were being transferred.
“I don’t like to see any of it. We hate to lose any jobs, particularly this time of year,” said Bannock Development Corp. Executive Director Ray Burstedt.
“It’s never a good thing when jobs are lost,” said George Millward, the United Transportation Union’s legislative director.
County Assessor Diane Bilyeu said the biggest hit to the city from the cuts will be in lost property taxes and business from the employees. “That’s where we really take a big hit.” Even with the cuts, however, the railroad’s impact on Pocatello is still significant.”