Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers
Division 758

Richard E. Etienne
Vancouver, WA
rick@etnsplace.com

 Ms. Marka Hughes
Director Labor Relations
BNSF Railway
PO Box 961030
Ft. Worth TX 76101-0030

December 9, 1999

Ms. Hughes,

Since the implementation of TK2000, your office has been advised that there are multiple problems, and to date, this committee sees no corrections. It was known from the start the system was flawed, but in the rush to beat Y2K, it was rolled out, over the strenuous objections of many members. This committee has had several conversations with your office, and Dennis Mead's office, but the usual answer received is a complete astonishment of any difficulties. Please allow me to elucidate.

• Claims are being declined because the wrong code is used. The codes issued from your own office are flawed, and incorrect. Under the RTE system the former roads (SP&S, GN, NP, CBQ etc.) were included along with the description of the code. Now this is gone. There is no way for the individual to know which road such codes are valid on.
• There are constant declinations stating "local approval required". Exactly how do you expect the individual employee to route that particular claim? George Smith has known this problem for some time, and he has corrected it on many occasions. Still, this nasty declination pops up regularly.
• Claims are declined on a regular basis for "Not part of your schedule rules", or "No basis for claim". This occurs even when the rule number and a verbatim quote of said rule is entered in the information column.
• Claims are declined stating: "Exhaustive investigation shows no evidence of your claim...." It is amazing that the local committee of adjustments can provide all the evidence necessary for local Director of Administrators to approve the claim.
• I have addressed the problems of not enough employees to work timeslips with your office. The answer is always the same. No problems here. Presently, on the Northern Corridor, you have one (1) individual, Dennis King, working special claims. There is no way he can keep up with all the special claims. In olden days, all special claims were considered penalty claims, and would be taken care of when time permitted. Now, however, there are many make whole claims for missed trips, employee involvement, etc. that an employee would reasonably expect to be compensated for on the proper half. This doesn't happen. In order to ensure this, the employee needs to call Mr. King, thus taking more of his valuable time, and ask him to manually take care of it. This is reprehensible.
• After canvassing the terminal, this committee has found the norm to be employees are truly confused and do not understand how the TK2000 works.
• Problems exist within the TK2000 system that has been known for years, but no corrections have been made. A glaring example is the inability of the system to pay FTD and then overtime. The poor timekeeper has to use a code 55 to pay overtime after FTD has accrued, because the system refuses to allow her to do so the regular way. Former Santa Fe timekeepers, who learned how to get around the problem, provided this fix. How many years has the former Santa Fe been on this system? And there has been no fix provided to date? Do you feel this is not a problem?

Now, let us address the problems that local committee of adjustment members are encountering:

• · There is no way for a LCA member to print out timeslips from other that at work. We have asked for a way to designate a printer for web print to be given, but again, no changes. Currently, the only way to do so is to make a bogus timeslip out, put the web print printer number in the field, submit it, and then we are able to print out timeslips.
• There seems to be no way for employees to view comments sent back to them by LCA members unless they print out the timeslip forwarded back to them. Unfortunately, there are no instructions for employees to do so that has been issued by the carrier.
• Recent changes have made one (1) individual responsible for all LCA appeals for the entire railroad. This includes both former BN, and former SF roads. This also included all crafts. Do you honestly feel he will have the time to weigh the documentation, evidence and appeals for each claim he receives within the 60-day time limit? I think not. Rather, a blanket denial will be issued when the 60-day period approaches. We already see this happening.
• In a letter to Dennis Mead, with a copy to your office, several months ago, the issue of claims conferencing was addressed. Unfortunately, Mr. Mead found no problems with the current system. He did not agree with this committee's suggestion for a semi monthly conference call with all the LCA.'s in the division. I can certainly see why, now in light of recent adjustments. If Mr. Stoltz was to schedule that, he would be spending every waking moment of his time on conference calls, since he now is required to deal with hundreds of LCA's in the entire system.
• Another issue, being paid for trips not worked, due to no fault of the employee was addressed by this committee, and the payroll department. Sadly, the results were anything other than satisfactory. An individual was shorted 9 trips for the month of October 1999, and could get no satisfaction. Phone calls were made. Mr. Mead's office was involved. Your office was involved. After a week, the individual was sent a time check, and then even that was incorrect. The answer given to my many pleas was: "There is no problem here". Even after I asked if that were so, why was I now on the phone trying to get the problem fixed, nay even addressed? No answer.

Ms. Hughes, This committee alone has become swamped with claims and complaints. I find I have no time to do anything else but work on the payroll issue. Look at the time consumed when the system rolled out, and the pay miles/overmiles were bad. Do you think this committee worked in "spare time"? Our committee of adjustments is incurring large expenses that have been caused solely by a flawed system forced on the employees. The local should not, and will not be required to shoulder the burden of fixing your department's errors. I estimate the costs to this committee to be over $1500.00, and rising fast. This committee would expect compensation for BLE Local 758 to be provided by your office. Further, acknowledgement of the many flaws, and an honest attempt to fix said flaws is required.

Respectfully,

Richard E. Etienne

Local Chairman
Div. 758

CC: MW Geiger Jr.
MD Dealy
RE Stephens
DL Mead