By Eric Killelea
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The plunge of coal shipments has translated into furloughs for thousands of BNSF Railway employees across the U.S., but in Eastern Montana where dozens of high-paying jobs were completely eliminated, the loss runs particularly deep.
Last year, BNSF laid off about 4,600 employees nationwide – nearly 10 percent of its workers – according to information shared by BNSF officials at the Montana Energy Conference in 2016. In Montana, where 71 percent of the company’s freight includes coal, the decline in demand coupled with record capital investment spurred the need of transfers for some and job hunting for others.
It was Wednesday, April 26 when BNSF’s Bret Bridges appeared in downtown Glendive after a flight from Alliance, Neb., to announce the company permanently eliminated 55 mechanical jobs – roughly half of the workers at the local diesel shop.
“I understand the business side of it,” said Phil Tuccillo, a former BNSF machinist and safety assistant. Tucillo worked 11 years for the company before opting out of a transfer when he took a mechanical position at Montana Rail Link in Livingston. “But I wish it never happened.”
As Tuccillo tells it, BNSF sent him down to Fort Worth in April to attend a safety and health team meeting. He was in high spirits since his hometown crew achieved a goal of completing three years of work without an injury. But that changed when he arrived at his hotel room and received a phone call from his wife, Colleen, who said she heard from her hairdresser that he and his co-workers were laid off.
“We were in shock,” said Phil, who confirmed the rumor with BNSF’s director of safety Ron Hennessey, along with chief mechanical officer Mark Grubbs down in Fort Worth. It was only last year when Grubbs had traveled north to announce that the company was furloughing 25 employees at the roundhouse. The cuts followed numerous train crew positions from Glendive and Forsyth being relocated to Laurel in 2015.
In Fort Worth, Tuccillo briefly attended Thursday’s safety and health meeting to find answers, before returning home early to clean out his office. His co-workers – laborers, pipefitters, electricians and machinists – considered transferring to company hubs in North Dakota and cities like Chicago, Kansas City and Seattle. They were offered $10,000 in moving packages that would be taxed but some felt the money came with a catch: They were obligated to stay in the place of their choosing for three years and if they broke contract they were expected to pay back the money.
Tuccillo ended up working two days in Minot, before being asked to run several Glendive employees through a week-long safety training. He finished that job, took vacation, got his house ready to sell and accepted the position at the MRL.
“I could have stayed in Minot, but I didn’t feel like business was stable enough,” Tuccillo said. “I felt it would only be a matter of time before more cuts came.”
Since April, a number of Glendive’s BNSF employees have accepted transfers.
Bob Ackerman, a retired foreman who put in 36 years with the company, said his daughter, Ashley, took a transfer for a machinist position in Galesburg, Ill. He remembers that Wednesday morning when Ashley called him from the roundhouse to say her “job was safe” only to call back 15 minutes later to tell him she was just laid off.
“The company had to do what they needed to do because of business,” Ackerman said. “But dammit, there should be some kind of allegiance to the employees.”
Ashley relocated on her own dime and has yet to receive the $10,000 moving package. She put her house up for sale, but has experienced trouble in a struggling housing market.
“It’s a domino effect,” Ackerman said. “Forty houses hit the market and you can’t give them away. There’s not a person in town the job loss is not going to affect.”
In Glendive, many railroaders have similar stories and many residents are tied in some way to the steel line that carves through downtown. But current and even former railroaders are nervous about talking on-the-record because they “need to take care of family,” according to two anonymous sources with ties to the railroad.
Town hall meeting not unusual
The hesitation to speak out is not unwarranted, especially since BNSF recently announced a town hall meeting led by BNSF’s President and CEO Carl R. Ice scheduled for 1 p.m. on Tuesday at Dawson Community College. While some railroaders say such meetings are held on a regular basis, rumors are abundant and there remains a palpable fear that more job cuts are coming down the line.
Back in April, Glendive Mayor Jerry Jimison said BNSF officials told him that they expected to keep 60 jobs at the diesel shop. Despite the verbal exchange, railroad officials and spokespersons have remained mute on the subject. When asked via email to elaborate on the reasons behind the town hall meeting, BNSF’s Montana-based regional director of public affairs Ross Lane said the meeting “is not a public event, and for BNSF employees only.”
“Town Halls occur monthly throughout our system and provide an opportunity for employees to hear directly from and ask questions of BNSF leadership,” Lane wrote on Thursday.
In his email, Lane included a statement he sent the newspaper in April and mentioned that the “comment is still an accurate reflection” of the company’s “business climate.”
“Unfortunately, long term trends in customer demand continue to negatively impact traffic volume in certain business segments, particular for coal and petroleum products,” according to Lane’s statement. “BNSF does not anticipate coal returning to peak levels and handled 480,000 fewer units of coal year-over-year in 2016. Additionally, record capital investment has resulted in more efficient and capable operations across the northern corridor. Consequently, BNSF had had to align resources with changing customer demand and traffic flows.”
Lane added: “No other locations in Montana are undergoing labor reductions. However, BNSF also announced in April that mechanical work at Murray Yard in Missouri would shift to Argentine Yard in Kansas. BNSF will continue to work with our employees as they transition through this difficult time.”
Local jobs are limited
The BNSF job eliminations have taken a toll in Dawson County where the economy suffered $2.8 million in lost wages. Those who lost their mechanical jobs paying yearly salaires of $50,000-plus and were unwilling to transfer are facing the option of taking significantly smaller paychecks in the local labor market.
Jobs are limited in Eastern Montana. Extreme droughts are troubling regional wheat farmers who are anticipating low crop yields. And gone is the Bakken boom, which once enticed thousands of oilfield workers to the High Plains. Three years ago, BNSF executives told a crowd at DCC that they hired 800 new employees in Montana between 2011 and 2014 and expected to hire 500 more by 2015.
Earlier this month, North Dakota’s rig count increased by 25 to 51 – a gain, but “far from the peak” of 218 in 2012. Though a second wind may seem possible for the oilfields, experts warn not to expect a new surge of railroad and roughneck jobs.
State Rep. Alane Doane compared the loss of oilfield and railroad jobs to his “scrambling for hay” during the ongoing drought affecting his crops.
“There’s not a lot of good paying jobs in Glendive,” Doane said. “If you lost your railroad job where are you going to go? You got to figure out what to do to make it work.”
The Bloomfield farmer has reached out to former BNSF employees, but not company officials.
He said the job cuts “were devastating to the local community and economy” and considered the possibilities that businesses start “adding value” to the locally-grown commodities in order to create additional work.
State Sen. Steve Hinebauch could not be reached for comment.
For former BNSF employees, the chances of finding good-paying jobs and benefits is slim in this scarcely populated area.
Jeremiah Stotler, whose position was eliminated after four years of working as a hostler and laborer for the company, said he felt “pissed off” when he learned via Facebook that he was laid off. He had bought “a brand new truck and a brand new bike” the previous year and “knew there weren’t any jobs around to make $28 an hour plus dental, medical, vision and an awesome retirement.”
Stotler worked two more weeks on the railroad and considered transferring near his family in Seattle, but decided to stay with his girlfriend and her two children.
“I could have gone to Mandan, but it was too far and my girlfriend’s kids need a stable male role-model in their life,” Stotler said. Instead of relocating, Stotler found a full-time job with a Glendive-based construction company. His is a solid job with consistent hours, but it does not offer benefits and he relies on his BNSF medical package expected to end in August. “If I get sick after that then I’m screwed,” Stotler said.
Stotler knows several former co-workers who welcomed transfers to Arizona and others who took local positions on farms and construction sites and at the Dawson County Correctional Facility. Some were raised here, while others had moved to town with their families during the oil boom. Stotler’s plan of action? Work construction through the summer and then put in a transfer request to Seattle.
Leaving isn’t easy
The railroad is what brought many local families to the Glendive area. Generations of men and women have clocked in countless hours here on the line. But job cuts have caused disruptions to bank accounts, the local economy, the housing market and the sense of community since families are leaving in search of work.
As for Tuccillo, he resigned from BNSF on May 19, started his new job four days later, and moved into a basement apartment with a former coworker who also took a new machinist job away from his family. Tuccillo feels lucky that his house is selling and he plans to move into a two-bedroom house next week. Colleen, who works for the state, and their two daughters bound for middle school, are expected to join him in mid-July.
“I’ve had opportunities to leave Glendive earlier in my career and I chose not to because of how close we got with people there,” Tuccillo said. “I enjoyed my job. The guys I worked with were like family. This was very hard. Glendive is a great place to raise kids and live.”
Reach Eric Killelea at rrsports@rangerreview.com.