UP Gets Union Backing for Increasing Safety On the Job

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union officials praised Union Pacific Railroad executives Wednesday for their efforts to improve safety for the Omaha-based railroad's employees.

Still, it remains to be seen whether those safety efforts will mean safer operations in the field, union officials said. They said lower-level UP managers do not seem as committed to change as their executive-level bosses.

Byron Boyd, assistant president of the United Transportation Union, said some field managers are reluctant to listen to, rank and file workers' suggestions.

"Their employees are the probably the best consultants they've got," Boyd told the Omaha World-Herald in an interview in Dallas.

UP officials testified in a two-day hearing before a National Transportation Safety Board panel on safety at the railroad. Since a number of fatal accidents that shook the railroad in 1997, officials have been working with unions and the Federal Railroad Administration to develop safety strategies.

UP spokesman Mark Davis said the railroad is rolling out a new program of management-union safety cooperation in the field, which will be in place later this year.

UP executives said the railroad has attacked worker fatigue, improved train dispatching and increased training to make the railroad safer.

"Our commitment to never have another year like 1997 has been translated into real actions," UP Vice Chairman Jerry Davis said. "Bottom line, we did what we said we would do and a lot more."