DES MOINES, IOWA (November 11, 2022) Veteran's day is Friday, November 11. In order to honor prior armed-service members, Iowa passed a law requiring Veteran employees’ time-off requests in advance for this day. The law allows companies to cancel this arrangement, with ten days’ notice under certain circumstances.
Union Pacific Railroad prides itself as a veteran friendly employer. However, true to form, and in line with quality-of-life issues railroad-workers have been fighting for, Union Pacific Railroad chose to notify veterans earlier this week with less than the ten-day required notice that veterans who requested prior approval would be denied that time off.
Railroad-worker quality of life and morale in the nation's freight rail-system are at lows, and, nationally, workers have been negotiating at the bargaining table for time off without discipline, adequate staffing, paid health-care, and improved quality of life. To ensure safe and reliable freight rail-service, incredibly-profitable Class-I rail carriers like Union Pacific need to step up and deliver for their employees.
Most railroad operating craft employees are on call 24/7 with little if any scheduled time off. The carless cancellation of Veterans Day time-off for employees, without adequate notice as specified by Iowa law, is emblematic of the way railroads have been treating employees. To see this fall upon Veteran employees in blatant disregard for Iowa Law is disappointing but not unexpected. It’s time for Union Pacific to follow Iowa State Law and honor our Veterans as intended by state lawmakers.
Here is a link to the law: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/91A.5A.pdf.
