Fatigue Talking Points

• Fatigue poses a significant safety risk to employees and the public at large.
• Limbo Time, and its increased abuse by the Carriers, increases the time on duty every trip, leading to increased fatigue. The effects are cumulative over extended periods.
• Decreased crew size (from 5 or 6 to 2 or 3), coupled with crews working over the maximum mileage regulations and fewer crews available to work, increases the chance that these smaller crews will all be fatigued to some degree.
• The "Mileage Hog" designation is nothing more than camouflage to the bigger issue caused by recent mega-mergers. Crews are now forced to work more often to make the same pay they were making previously.
• Availability policies have become ludicrous - as high as 95% on a 24-hr/7-day-a-week job. No one can keep up that kind of availability year in and year out. If an employee has a doctor's appointment, they can be penalized for taking the time off. Because they lack schedules, they cannot make provisions to work around those nonexistent schedules. Even those parents who have court ordered visitation schedules are forced to choose between seeing their children or facing discipline for not being available 95% of the time. There has to be some flexibility given.
• Irregular and/or nonexistent schedules interfere with the body’s circadian rhythms and contribute to poor sleep habits when the opportunity for rest arises. Many people find it difficult to sleep during the day, even with blackout curtains.
• Inaccurate lineup information, which gives the employee an approximation of when they will be called for duty, and therefore, the opportunity to rest prior to being called, is often as much as 22 hours in error. Anything short of a crystal ball cannot help these employees utilize their time off to make sure they are rested when they get that call to report for duty.
• Manpower shortages contribute significantly to the inability to get adequate rest. When employees are expected to work anywhere from 13 to 20 hours per trip, have only 8 to 10 hours off, then turn around and do it again, day after day, month after month, the cumulative sleep deprivation that occurs becomes dangerous. Compounding that with the 85% to 95% availability requirements only "adds salt to the wound."
• Employees are oftentimes not allowed to use their earned leave time, even when exhausted, because of manpower shortages.

Possible solutions

• Eliminate the existence of "limbo time" so that it is calculated as part of the maximum 12 hours under the Hours of Service Act. Discontinuance of its abuse would bolster the carriers’ bottom lines, lead to more rested crews, and increase morale because crews would know they would not be on duty more than 12 hours.
• Update train lineups so that the information is as accurate as possible. With all of today's technology, including satellite GPS systems, CTC signal systems, scanners, etc., never should a situation occur that a train shows up 22 hours ahead of the time cited on the line up. If trains are delayed or tied down for whatever reason, a note could be added to the train information estimating the time it is expected to run, or the lineup could be adjusted to reflect the new time.
• Update Availability Policies to realistic requirements. The railroad does not operate on a 40-hour work week, so the time required to be available for service needs to be adjusted to the 24/7 schedule to allow adequate time off between tours of duty.
• Reinstate trained employees who are cut back or furloughed to increase the labor pool. It is no secret that a number of baby boomers will be retiring in the next 5 to 8 years, so provisions to have workers trained and ready to replace those employees should be started now. If labor pools are increased, employees will not be forced to work to the point of exhaustion, and will be able to take advantage of their earned time off to get rested and to spend time with their families.