This General Committee has repeatedly attempted to work with BNSF Labor Relations and/or TY&E Compensation Systems to improve the processing of claims so that valid claims can be promptly paid and invalid claims can be answered with some real Agreement authority rather than the meaningless verbiage used as standard procedure. Invariably, as soon as we identify the problems and suggest a plan for improvement, we hear that the system can't handle the necessary changes, or that personnel or programming won't be available until some unspecified date in the future, or that the Carrier has some other project going that will resolve the problem, etc. etc. Meanwhile, we continue seeing the same lame declinations of claims that are then routinely paid BNSF's Labor Relations Officers months later. Despite numerous starts and stops, we are no closer to resolving these timekeeping problems today then we were a year ago or five years ago. The message being sent to BNSF's employees is that management simply prefers discord and conflict to cooperation and resolution.

Another ongoing problem is that BNSF's Labor Relations Web Page contains erroneous information regarding our Collective Bargaining Agreements. In recent months, claim declinations from TY&ECS actually refer to the LR Web Page, as if that Web Page (rather than the Collective Bargaining Agreement itself) were the ultimate authority in Agreement interpretation. Those articles contain inaccurate or misleading information about compensation for "familiarization" trips, duplicate time payments, FMLA, Crew Consist, lockers, etc.

When employees (especially newer employees) see these articles written by Labor Relations "professionals" they assume that those folks know what they are talking about. Based on these misrepresentations, some employees do not file valid claims. The result is that BNSF denies its employees the compensation they are due by perpetuating misinformation on this LR Web Site. If UTU members made such misrepresentations as a basis for submitting a claim they would be charged with fraud.

With BNSF's operation sliding ever closer to gridlock due to a shortage of employees and a dearth of experienced managers, local officers increasingly ignore our contracts, knowingly and intentionally ordering crews to violate the Agreement, and in some cases bargaining with employees directly in order to hand-pick the folks they want on a particular job. One Trainmaster recently bribed a senior employee to bid on an assignment for the sole purpose of preventing another employee from placing on the job, offering to pay that senior employee more than half a day's pay in "perks" not available to other employees. Ironically, part of the compensation offered as a bribe by that Trainmaster is one of those valid claims that is routinely denied to other employees in the same territory.

BNSF is facing an unprecedented demand for rail service. That challenge will not be met as long as the current plantation mentality governs the BNSF labor/management relationship. We will meet that challenge only through a cooperative effort between equal partners. Denying or delaying employees' rightful compensation (whether by fraud or by foot-dragging), disregarding our Collective Bargaining Agreements and disrespecting employees' seniority rights will not promote such a partnership.