News 04/20/2005: Mark makes the cover of UP ONLINE

Railroad Groups Come Together on Work, Rest Plan
Members of the UTU, BLET and representatives from all major railroads, including Union Pacific, have joined forces to propose an integrated fatigue management plan for the rail industry. The outcome of this alliance is a Work/Rest Task Force consisting of labor and management.

Union Pacific leads the industry with its fatigue management education program, and in working with the Work/Rest Task Force, UP is making even greater strides in its effort to address fatigue issues.

The task force’s goal is to create a "toolkit" approach so railroads, in conjunction with labor partners, can develop fatigue management processes to meet the needs of local operations and individual employees.

The toolkit includes countermeasures that may be customized as part of a fatigue management plan. Those countermeasures include educational programs addressing such issues as sleep hygiene, sleep disorders and special programs for senior decision makers and new hires. This approach, which matches what Union Pacific has been developing for the past five years, also is designed to address rest policies. These include opportunities for undisturbed rest, to manage rest periods at home and away from home and to address scheduling issues.

"Management and labor working together in good faith will give individual railroad workers the ability to retain the greatest number of options possible to address their individual experience of fatigue," said Mark Ricci, Ph.D., chairman of the Washington State Legislative Board for the BLET.

Ricci said the willingness to evaluate the effects of the fatigue mitigation efforts is the key difference between the current initiative and previous attempts to address fatigue.

Shortly, all railroad employees will have access to a comprehensive industry Web site that will include educational materials, sleep disorder assessments, research, alertness strategies and more.

To develop your own personal strategies for fighting fatigue, or to receive educational materials, contact the Alertness Management Program at 402-544-5963. Information on Alertness Management also can be found on the Employees site. For questions about the industry process, contact Denny Holland, Ph.D., director-occupational health psychology, at 402-544-4155.

Courtesy UP Online 04/20/2005