Union asks FRA to inspect BNSF locomotives, rail cars

Transportation Trades Department (TTD) AFL-CIO President Greg Regan is asking the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to conduct unannounced inspections of all BNSF Railway Co.'s owned and lease locomotives and rail cars at or in transit to the Class I's locomotive maintenance inspection terminals.

In a Feb. 29 letter to FRA Administrator Amit Bose, Regan expressed union concerns that defects on locomotives and rail cars are being ignored due to what the union says is an inadequate number of inspectors following BNSF’s furloughs of mechanical department workers.

Regan wrote that a December 2023 presentation by shop craft unions indicated that BNSF had reduced the number of mechanical department employees by more than 41% since 2015. Union officials also claimed at the time that shop craft workers were being instructed by railroad managers to ignore defects and perform inspections in "impossibly short timeframes." Then on Feb. 27, BNSF announced it furloughed more than 362 mechanical department positions at numerous locations.

"We urge the FRA take immediate action to hold BNSF accountable by immediately performing randomized audits focused inspections and further issue noncompliance orders requiring BNSF to repair any defects found on their owned and leased locomotives and rail cars across their network," Regan wrote. His letter can be read at the link above.

In an emailed response to Progressive Railroading, BNSF spokeswoman Kendall Kirkham Sloan said BNSF last week announced "voluntary furloughs in an effort to rebalance our employees across our network to areas where we are seeing substantial growth, while simultaneously moving them away from locations where there is not enough work available."

Location transfers with incentives are being offered to affected employees, targeted to the locations with open positions, Sloan said. BNSF also offered craft transfers for mechanical employees to be retrained for other open positions on the network.

"There are currently several hundred open mechanical and engineering positions on our network," she said. "Our hope is that we can reallocate personnel through these incentive programs, so BNSF continues to grow with our customers."

The presumption that BNSF is moving away from its safety priority is inaccurate, Sloan added.

"Through our robust inspection processes with an emphasis on qualified training complemented by technology, we are confident operations will continue to be safer than ever as we work toward our safety vision of zero accidents and injuries," she said.

In 2023, BNSF recorded the lowest number of injuries in its 175-year history, she added.