“This announcement is specific to our mechanical forces and impacts 92 jobs at Guernsey and 38 jobs at Donkey Creek,” LaSalle said. “The Guernsey terminal will remain operational.”
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The face and future of the BNSF Railway yard in Guernsey may be changing in the next few months.
According to Maia LaSalle, Director of Public Affairs at BNSF in a release that she provided for the Guernsey Gazette, she said, “BNSF Railway has made the decision to close maintenance facilities in Donkey Creek and Guernsey, Wyoming in response to our customers’ changing business conditions and projected lower demand for rail cars to ship commodities.”
Although the company has not specified whether other layoffs are coming, speculation is that the coronavirus has had an impact on the current announcement. Due to collective bargaining, the railway has 60 days to try to come up with perhaps a solution to alleviate the closures, but as of now, the shutdowns are on the table.
History shows that this has happened before in the BNSF organization and in the collective bargaining period, the company has not gone ahead with plans to eliminate jobs. Chad Hansen, Terminal Manager at Guernsey is hopeful that this will be the case.
Although Hansen has not been able to make an official statement as per company officials, he mentioned that he was “disappointed” as to the development.