“Management” Strikes Again!

Or: Does anyone want a job with the BNSF?

ORLANDO, July 20, 2005. -- Kem Parton was a self-described "management-aholic” on the BNSF Railway. But he confessed to 700 UTU members here on July 19: "I’ve been sober for 25 days!" Parton, a labor relations officer with BNSF in Ft. Worth, was fired for writing, on his off-duty time, a novel that is due to be published in October. Now, the U.S. Naval Academy graduate, who puts honor ahead of dollars, is looking for work.

Parton was a guest of the UTU at its regional meeting here and a featured luncheon speaker. He was introduced by UTU International President Paul Thompson as "a born-again suit." The term "suit" is used by the rank-and-file to describe a manager. Railroad officials, Parton said, were afraid his novel - but obviously not their own treatment of employees - might hinder the railroad’s chances of being selected one of the 100 best places to work. Good grief. Has reality been turned inside out, flimflammed and then mugged by the BNSF Railway?

Parton's novel is about a terrorist who takes on the nation's largest railroad.

It wasn't the plot that concerned management, Parton said. "Management's objection to my book is that they believe the book paints railroad management in a negative light," Parton said. "I kept telling them that it was a work of fiction. "They insisted," Parton said, "they don't screw our customers, they don't work our train service employees to the point of exhaustion and they don't blame the train crews every time something goes wrong.

"I said, 'If you aren't like that, why do you think the book is about you?'"

Indeed, fact can be stranger than fiction -- as in the case of Parton's termination. BNSF Railway culture is pregnant with what some might consider bizarre behavior when it comes to the truth.

Consider:

• The former BN (prior to its merger with the Santa Fe) fired its chief public relations officer for admitting the truth to the Wall Street Journal - that the railroad "reneged" on a promise not to abandon a branch line.
• The former BN secretly paid a witness to testify to Congress about the alleged evils of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA), which is a railroader's best protection against workplace hazards. When the president of the Association of American Railroads - an industry trade group - learned about this deception, he personally contacted each member of the congressional committee to apologize on behalf of the entire railroad industry.
• During the first Gulf War, the CEO of the former BN sought the firing of a rail official employed elsewhere because that official wrote a factual article explaining how railroads might be nationalized during time of war if the industry did not reach a negotiated settlement with its unions.

Were Ronald Regan alive, he might say, in the case of Kem Parton, "Here we go, again.”

We suspect none of those events, including Parton's firing, will show up in another book -- one the railroad is paying to have published. That book, where every page has been subjected to sanitizing by company attorneys, labor relations and public relations officials, purports to be a factual history of BNSF and its predecessors. The author was specially selected by BNSF officials.

Perhaps the greatest truth that will not show up in BNSF’s history - the one for which it is paying and whose content it controls -- is another observation by Parton: "Anyone that has seen the carrier's latest definitions of what a moratorium means, is familiar with the concept of fiction."

He was referring to the railroad’s demand that various locally negotiated contracts with the UTU, providing for a moratorium on the number of crewmembers assigned to a train, be reopened for negotiation even though the contracts contain a moratorium that they not be reopened until the last affected employee voluntarily leaves service.

Parton had advice for the UTU membership. "The next time one of your members gripes about the cost of his union dues, I recommend you tell them my story. I live in an 'at will' employment state, and after 12 years of service, I received exactly $3,700 severance pay. "So, the next time one of your members complains about the cost of their dues," Parton counseled, "I'd be happy to remind them of the alternative. Union dues are the best bargain on the planet for the working man."

Parton said he made no secret of the book during the seven years he was writing it. "When the book was four weeks from going to the printer, I was told if I wanted to keep my job, I had to kill the book. It was a tempting offer. The advance on the book was less than a month's pay on the extra board. If I killed the book, I could pay my mortgage, put my kids through college, and retire in 15 years.

"Defying management," Parton said, "was a horrible financial decision, but sometimes you just have to take a stand and do what's right. I refused to kill the book, and they fired me as promised. I hope you like the book, it cost me my job to bring it to you."

The title of Parton’s book is, "End of the Line." It is about a gigantic mega-merged railroad called Transcon that runs coast-to-coast. In the process of putting this huge railroad together, Transcon has basically declared war on the unions, customers and anyone else who stood in their way. (Sound familiar?) One of the many downsized officers holds a grudge and decides to destroy the railroad.

Luckily for the plot, there are heroes - a courageous general chairman and a down-and-out shoreline officer who was about to get downsized himself. They team up and risk everything to try and stop the terrorist. "Incidentally," Parton said, "the train service employees in the book - in spite of the personal danger, fatigue and oppressive management - keep coming to work. After all, just because a maniacal terrorist is killing railroaders is no excuse to run afoul of the company’s attendance policy."

One UTU general chairperson told Parton that he thought the book would sell well on the railroad because, despite what management thinks, "our guys can read. There isn't much else to do when they hold you 30 hours at your away from home terminal before deadheading you home."

"End of the Line" can be previewed at Parton's website, www.railtale.com <http://www.railtale.com/>. It will be available at www.amazon.com <http://www.amazon.com/>.

Ever the optimist, Parton observes, "You can't be a writer and not believe in happy endings."

Posted: 07/21/05