Various locations are reporting that BNSF is posting advertisements for Utility Engineers, pursuant to Article 3 of BLET’s 2007 National Contract which reads:

"ARTICLE 3 ~ Utility Engineers

a. Wherever the company has yard service, it may establish utility yard engineer positions to operate as regular or extra service. A utility yard engineer, with or without a ground crew, may perform any service currently performed by a yard engineer and will work under and be paid according to all effective BLET/BNSF schedule rules governing yard service. A utility yard engineer may be attached to more than one ground crew during the engineer's tour of duty, but not to more than one ground crew at anyone time.

b. Engineers assigned to work as utility yard engineers will be allowed the "engineer only" (EO) allowance established by Article IV of the December 23, 2003 BLET/BNSF On-Property Memorandum of Agreement in addition to all other earnings. In no event will there be more than one such payment to an engineer per tour of duty.

c. All locomotive engineer positions referred to in this Article will be filled from the engineers' seniority roster consistent with BLET agreements governing assignment and promotion from that roster."

It’s important to understand that UTU has no say in when, where, or how many Utility Engineer assignments are created. Our task is to protect the work rights of UTU represented crafts. Depending on how they are used, these Utility Engineers may or may not intrude on those rights. It certainly doesn’t help that the framers of the Agreement chose to include the language “with or without a ground crew” in describing what duties are permissible for Utility Engineers to perform. An incurious Trainmaster will likely read no further and attempt to have these Utility Engineers perform service that runs contrary to UTU Crew Consist Agreements.

The work performed by these Utility Engineers will generally fall into three categories,

1) TOTALLY BENIGN:
A Utility Engineer performs the duties that would otherwise be performed by an assigned Engineer. For example, attached to a ground crew (RC or non-RC) that otherwise meets our Crew Consist Requirements.

2) NON-SERIOUS INTRUSION:
After abolishing one or more Hostler positions, a Utility Engineer is paired with a single-position ground service employee (e.g. Hostler Helper, Pilot, Herder, Bullringer, or Utility Yardman) and handles light locomotives. In these cases, abolishing a Hostler position and replacing it with a Utility Engineer may or may not have been proper under our Agreements. It depends on the amount of hostling work the Utility Engineer performs during the shift.

3) SERIOUS INTRUSION:
A Utility Engineer handles cars without being attached to a “crew” as defined by our Crew Consist Agreements (for yard work, one Foreman and one Helper, for road work, at least a Conductor, or possibly a Conductor and Brakeman). In no case should a Utility Engineer be handling cars while alone or attached to a “single-position” ground person (e.g. Utility Yardman). As info, stretching a joint after tying on light power is not “handling” cars.

Please contact this office or your Associate with jurisdiction with any further questions you may have on this matter.