(The following article by Todd Cooper was posted on the Omaha World Herald website on April 1.)
OMAHA, Neb. — About 25 railroad workers have sued Union Pacific, claiming that the Omaha-based railroad’s erratic work schedules and chaotic sleeping conditions caused them to suffer from adult-onset diabetes.
The linemen, brakemen, switchmen and conductors filed a flurry of lawsuits in Douglas County District Court this week alleging that there’s a link between the high stress and erratic sleep patterns of their jobs and diabetes.
The on-call workers – who are mostly from California, Nevada and Utah have had to quit their jobs or curtail their work hours after being diagnosed with Type II diabetes, said their attorney, Richard Dinsmore of Omaha.
The lawsuits list anywhere from $5,000 to $51,000 in lost wages so far.
Plus, each worker is seeking money for the “anguish” and “genuine and serious fear” of the disease worsening and causing blindness, amputations or death.
The lawsuits also question whether the railroad violated provisions of the Hours of Service Act – a federal law that requires eight hours off after every 12 hours of work.
Dinsmore said the railroad knew or should have known about the links among sleep deprivation, stress and adult-onset diabetes. U.P.’s own Web site once warned employees of the possible link, Dinsmore said.
Mark Davis, a U.P. spokesman, declined to comment on the lawsuits. An attorney for U.P. didn’t return a phone call.
The railroad is expected to question whether there is scientific evidence of a link between erratic work/sleep hours and diabetes. In court documents, U.P. attorneys also have questioned whether each worker was genetically disposed to diabetes or whether other maladies contributed to their sleep loss.
Dinsmore said the employees all were well-paid. But in return, they also were required to be on call “24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
Dinsmore gave this account:
The workers would go on runs from California to Nevada to Utah and back.
When they reached a destination, they would pass the train onto the next crew. They then would lay over in a cramped bunkhouse or a “fleabag motel,”
Dinsmore said. Workers referred to one such sleeping place as a “dungeon.”
In a deposition, former U.P. worker Milan Mlakar described impossible sleeping conditions. One cramped bunkhouse sat about 50 yards from the tracks, he said.
Trains rumbled. Phones rang. Janitors cleaned. Makeshift curtains barely blocked the sunlight. Walls weren’t insulated. Workers came and went at all hours.
Mlakar said the railroad would try to conserve energy by shutting off the air conditioner or furnace, causing rooms to reach unbearable temperatures.
“You could hear a lot of noise from room to room,” he said in a deposition.
“You could hear the guy showering in the next room . . . That would disturb your rest.”
At most, Mlakar said, he could get about five hours of sleep. And he couldn’t count on routine sleep hours. His shift could end in the middle of the day or the middle of the night, he said.
Mlakar, like all of the plaintiffs, eventually was diagnosed with diabetes.
Dinsmore acknowledged that he will have to demonstrate in court that the cause of the diabetes wasn’t genetic.
He also acknowledged that many of the working conditions and sleeping conditions have since improved. However, he alleged that poor sleeping and eating arrangements existed from the 1970s until the early 1990s.
Many of his clients tell the same stories.
“It sounds like something out of (Charles) Dickens,” Dinsmore said. “They would build their own hotels on top of these bustling tracks. Then they’d say, ‘You kids go to sleep.’
“It was complete chaos. You throw in bad nutrition, and it was a ticking time bomb.”