Union Pacific wrote:
Fourth Quarter Results
Diluted earnings per share of $1.39 increased 6 percent.
Operating income totaled $2.0 billion, up 2 percent.
Operating ratio of 62.0 percent, improved 1.2 points.
Full Year 2016 Results
Diluted earnings per share of $5.07 declined 8 percent.
Operating income totaled 7.3 billion, down 10 percent.
Operating ratio of 63.5 percent, up 0.4 points.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2017 1:19 pm
by choke
Per Jay Withrow / World-Herald staff writer:
U.P. locomotive to cross state to help celebrate Nebraska's 150th birthday
The schedule:
Friday, Aug. 4
Depart Omaha
Noon - Columbus
Late afternoon - North Platte
Union Pacific Corp. UNP -2.08% plans to lay off about 500 employees before the end of the year, the first of several rounds of job cuts as the railroad implements a new operating plan to turn around its performance.
The company, one of two major freight railroads in the Western U.S., has been struggling this year with congestion and service issues that have depressed its profits.
The Omaha, Neb.-based company also plans to eliminate 200 contract positions, according to an internal memo reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. The job cuts will occur across the railroad network. Union Pacific had about 6,300 nonunion employees as of June 30.
“These steps are part of reducing our general and administrative support structure by roughly 30% by 2020,” Chief Executive Lance Fritz wrote in the memo Tuesday. “We will also need to drive efficiencies in other parts of the railroad.”
The layoffs were announced as part of other restructuring ahead of the company’s earnings announcement on Thursday. Those include consolidating operating regions from three to two, creating a centralized engineering organization and selling Selma Farm, a corporate retreat near St. Louis that the company inherited as part of a 1986 merger.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:29 pm
by TitosBuritoBarn
If I'm reading KETV's article correctly, none (only a few?) of the layoffs will be in Omaha. Instead they will be around Denver, St. Louis, Detroit, the Twin Cities, and El Paso or New Mexico.
milesej05 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:51 am
Incorrect, LOTS of cuts were made in HQ on the 22nd and 23rd.
Yup. My wife works there and she said there was a constant stream of people being walked out all day.
Does she suspect that they told every department head that he/she needed to cull the herd and fire their most least useful employee or any trouble makers?
milesej05 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:51 am
Incorrect, LOTS of cuts were made in HQ on the 22nd and 23rd.
Yup. My wife works there and she said there was a constant stream of people being walked out all day.
Does she suspect that they told every department head that he/she needed to cull the herd and fire their most least useful employee or any trouble makers?
All I know was that the cuts were across the board and the only purpose was to improve stock price. Which was already doing really well. Lance Fritz is taking a massive risk and creating a very toxic environment there.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:53 am
by damonhynes
It started with CSX. KCS, NS and now UP are jumping on this Precision Railroading chimera. Jumping over dollars to look for pennies.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2018 12:39 pm
by Louie
damonhynes wrote: ↑Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:53 am
It started with CSX. KCS, NS and now UP are jumping on this Precision Railroading chimera. Jumping over dollars to look for pennies.
Union Pacific on Tuesday said it cut its workforce by about 250 people, according to a memo sent to employees and obtained by The World-Herald.
The company also said it had furloughed about 450 employees in the railroad's mechanical department as more than 1,000 locomotives recently have been idled. When a worker is furloughed, it's a kind of temporary layoff, when he or she is put on "inactive" status.
Among the 250 jobs to be cut, about 60 percent of those are in Omaha, according to the memo.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:13 am
by daveoma
I'm really sad to hear about the layoffs. Since they've let so many people go, I wonder if the UP Center feels a little empty.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 8:47 am
by Greg S
daveoma wrote: ↑Wed Feb 13, 2019 1:13 am
I'm really sad to hear about the layoffs. Since they've let so many people go, I wonder if the UP Center feels a little empty.
I know at one point they were outgrowing it. Now it might be closer to the right size for them. This is a total bummer on UP.
Greg
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:08 pm
by buildomaha
Thank god for those tax cuts! Glad to see trump creating so many well paying jobs
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2019 5:39 pm
by Linkin5
buildomaha wrote: ↑Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:08 pm
Thank god for those tax cuts! Glad to see trump creating so many well paying jobs
buildomaha wrote: ↑Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:08 pm
Thank god for those tax cuts! Glad to see trump creating so many well paying jobs
All this money is just trickling down!
Right to the shareholders. I hate that part of capitalism, reward the shareholder who expects returns on money they ‘risk’ (please the majority of stocks gets positive return every year) and not the one spending a third of their lives working for them.
buildomaha wrote: ↑Wed Feb 13, 2019 12:08 pm
Thank god for those tax cuts! Glad to see trump creating so many well paying jobs
All this money is just trickling down!
Right to the shareholders. I hate that part of capitalism, reward the shareholder who expects returns on money they ‘risk’ (please the majority of stocks gets positive return every year) and not the one spending a third of their lives working for them.
Yeah I had a friend let go yesterday after 8 years there.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:32 am
by Fort Calhoun
A huge problem is the fear that if stockholders do not get what they consider decent returns a corporate raider may purchase enough stock to force a change in leadership or massive changes. CSX railroad faced this a couple of years ago when stockholders forced the railroad to hire Hunter Harrison.
Omaha faced the consequences of corporate raiders when Enron was faced with the possibly of corporate raiders forcing the company to liquidate some of its assets and cash reserves. They responded by using cash reserves to merge with Houston Oil and we know how well that turned out for Omaha.
Corporate raiders also forced a change in leadership at ConAgra. That resulted in the headquarters being moved to Chicago.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2019 3:13 pm
by Linkin5
Fort Calhoun wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:32 am
A huge problem is the fear that if stockholders do not get what they consider decent returns a corporate raider may purchase enough stock to force a change in leadership or massive changes. CSX railroad faced this a couple of years ago when stockholders forced the railroad to hire Hunter Harrison.
Omaha faced the consequences of corporate raiders when Enron was faced with the possibly of corporate raiders forcing the company to liquidate some of its assets and cash reserves. They responded by using cash reserves to merge with Houston Oil and we know how well that turned out for Omaha.
Corporate raiders also forced a change in leadership at ConAgra. That resulted in the headquarters being moved to Chicago.
This very thing is a huge flaw in our system and needs to be reformed. In the 80s we started to see companies put their shareholder’s interests ahead of their employees.
Since that time we’ve seen lower tiered worker wages stagnate and exec wages skyrocket. Something is due to change, either by law or worker’s force.
I’ve been critical of some unions such as the Omaha firefighter’s union but by and large this country would be much better off if we had more unionization in private sectors.
Fort Calhoun wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:32 am
A huge problem is the fear that if stockholders do not get what they consider decent returns a corporate raider may purchase enough stock to force a change in leadership or massive changes. CSX railroad faced this a couple of years ago when stockholders forced the railroad to hire Hunter Harrison.
Omaha faced the consequences of corporate raiders when Enron was faced with the possibly of corporate raiders forcing the company to liquidate some of its assets and cash reserves. They responded by using cash reserves to merge with Houston Oil and we know how well that turned out for Omaha.
Corporate raiders also forced a change in leadership at ConAgra. That resulted in the headquarters being moved to Chicago.
This very thing is a huge flaw in our system and needs to be reformed. In the 80s we started to see companies put their shareholder’s interests ahead of their employees.
Since that time we’ve seen lower tiered worker wages stagnate and exec wages skyrocket. Something is due to change, either by law or worker’s force.
I’ve been critical of some unions such as the Omaha firefighter’s union but by and large this country would be much better off if we had more unionization in private sectors.
It's sad that Omaha lost jobs, yes. It's also part on UP for middle management bloat in Omaha.
For what it's worth - as someone who has spent enough time in UPs repair shops - they are incredibly inefficient.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 1:35 pm
by Louie
On another note, there was/is a billboard on the interstate in Omaha during the Berkshire event that lambasted Lance Fritz and the company as a whole.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 9:27 am
by Coyote
Union Pacific's operations could be halted by railroad strike
A potential massive rail strike on Friday could deal another blow to the U.S. economy.
A potential massive rail strike on Friday could deal another blow to the U.S. economy. Seven unions represent more than 90,000 workers at the nation's freight railroads. The workers want salary increases and back pay for hours worked since 2020. One attorney said pushes for better pay and quality-of-life are building momentum as the workforce emerges from the pandemic. "A lot of them want to be able to have a better life than what they were doing pre-pandemic," said Joseph Hall, an Omaha lawyer who works on employment and labor cases. Freight railroads have already stopped accepting shipments of hazardous and security sensitive materials because of the threat of a strike.
Union Pacific's operations would be halted by a strike like this. The rail company said they're stopping these shipments to "protect employees, customers, and the communities we serve." If these workers go on strike, that could bring 40% of the nation's freight to a halt. A strike that goes on longer could lead to empty shelves in stores, higher prices because of limited supplies and temporary closure at factories that don't have parts they need. “Is it going to completely shut it down? No, but it's going to make things worse for a while if this does happen," said Scott Swenseth, associate professor of supply chain management and analytics at UNL. Swenseth said a strike could be "devastating" for the supply chain, and short-term solutions are few and far between. The truck driver shortage, he said, makes alternative modes of transportation even more difficult to implement. "It's not just the movement of the freight, it's, it's the supply for the manufacturers, the food processors that that potentially aren't going to be able to do make things run," said Swanseth.
Trains are moving through Nebraska right now but they could stop in their tracks come Friday. It's due to a possible strike because two large unions and the railroad companies, including Union Pacific and BNSF, haven't been able to come to an agreement. Pat Pfeifer with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen puts it bluntly. "Everybody that's a railroad employee feels like they've been treated like dirt for the last 4 to 5 years, do they have a chip on their shoulder? Are they upset off at their railroad? Yeah," Pfeifer said.
The sticking point is over sick leave and changes in scheduling rules. Without an agreement by midnight Friday, freight could stop moving. "7,000 daily freight trains crisscrossing the country. In a strike, theoretically, all of those would stop. There's no way trucking by itself can take up that slack," said Nebraska Trucking Association President & CEO Kent Grisham. He says trucking and railroads are so closely tied to moving freight that what affects one affects the other. Grisham estimates if those trains stop in the event of a strike, it would take 460,000 additional trucks hitting the highway to move the same amount of freight. That's virtually impossible given there's a critical equipment and truck driver shortage.
“That equals a supply chain already stretched, might just finally break," Grisham said. Pfeifer admits a strike is a last resort, but the whole country will feel the ramifications. "Whether it's food, whether it's ethanol for your gas pumps, we do that 24/7 365 nonstop. When the railroads claim if we go on strike, it will cost our country $2 billion a day, that should tell the importance of what we do," Pfeifer said. A spokesperson from Union Pacific says they want to push for a "prompt resolution," providing historic wage increases and allowing railroads to restore service as soon as possible.
Re: Union Pacific Business News
Posted: Wed Sep 14, 2022 3:48 pm
by Linkin5
Hopefully they strike and get the benefits they deserve.