Overweight, Out of Work At Rail Yard

The burly Teamsters who transfer double-stacked shipping containers between trains and trucks at BNSF Railway’s Corwith rail yard on the Southwest Side typically spend their days concerned with deft maneuvers of heavy equipment.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe Cicero Intermodal Facility.
John Konstantaras/Chicago News Cooperative

But for the past two months, many of these union workers have been obsessed with body mass indexes, calories, saturated fats and stress tests because the company says they need to lose weight.

For years, BNSF Railway has subcontracted with another company to hire the hostlers, roughly 180 men represented by Teamsters Local 705 who transfer containers between trucks and trains. BNSF is ending that arrangement effective Tuesday, and hiring workers directly to fill those positions. The Teamsters were invited to reapply for their jobs; most of them did, and some were rehired while a significant number were not.

Those not rehired say BNSF officials gave them various reasons they were not qualified for the jobs they had been doing for years — including that they are too fat.

About 30 Teamsters said they were told that they might be rehired if they reduced their body mass index or lost a certain number of pounds — more than 100 in a few cases. A railway spokeswoman said the company could not comment because of potential litigation.

Teamsters workers and union staff members call the orders to lose weight a “union-busting tactic” on the part of the railroad, which has signed a contract with another union, the Transportation Communications International Union, to represent the new hires.

“They don’t want us former Teamsters in there because they think we’ll try to bring the Teamsters back in to represent us,” said Felipe Gonzalez, 40, who has lost about 20 pounds and thinks he needs to lose 20 more to reach the body mass index that might get him rehired. “The weight is an excuse. You should see some of the new guys they’ve hired — they’re much bigger than us.”

The railway Web site describes a “physical capabilities test” among the requirements for new hires. After failing a test that involves lifting increasing amounts of weight with the arms and legs, Jose Morales, 40, said he was told he had to lose 100 pounds. He has lost 50 pounds in two months, down to 302. He said he did it by running on a treadmill three times a week, never eating after 7 p.m. and “staying away from greasy burritos.”

Mr. Morales said he hoped he could reach 250 pounds and get his job back by January. Though his doctor has long told him to lose weight, he said, he does not think it affects his performance in rail yards, where he has worked for two decades.

“I’m crawling in between containers to make adjustments, climbing up on trucks loaded with steel pipes in the middle of winter,” he said. “My weight was never an issue. I consider myself one of the best on the BNSF line.”

The workers said weight gain was a byproduct of their jobs, which often involve shifts of up to 12 hours, mostly spent sitting in trucks or cranes.

“Of course we’re big; we’re Teamsters,” said Jim Kane, 51, who was rehired by the railway after losing 50 pounds by eating Weight Watchers meals and spending time on a treadmill. “You grab your coffee and doughnuts — that’s what Teamsters do.”