My history on the railroad is started from

December 1999 - 2002 :: Fireman at Roaring Camp Railroad, Felton, CA. I was a fireman for a 142-ton 2 truck Shay built in 1912, 162 ton 3 truck Shay built in 1917 (I think) and also, a 2 truck Heisler steam engine built in 1899. All 3 of these were steam engines, and this is the time that a fireman was really dealing with a fire-- climbing in the firebox, cleaning it out, starting the boiler 3-4 hours before ready for the engineer, etc. This was a weekend job while working in high tech M-F

In 2002 - December 2003 :: I mixed between the Narrow gauge steam engines and the standard gauge trips between Felton, CA to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, which took freight from the Santa Cruz Local at times. Same again here, high tech for Sun Microsystems M-F.

January 2004 - started working with Union Pacific Railroad full time. Finished brakeman's class in Jan 24, 2004, conductor class in or about April 2004. I was picked up for my application in for engine service in June 2004, with a seniority date of July 30, 2004 (engineer). .. 187 days between brakeman to engineer.

since then, I have worked (and qualified) from Roseville, CA to Portola (Feather River Canyon), Sparks, NV (Donner Summit), Fresno (Valley), Oakland/San Jose via either Martinez Sub "Cal P" or Altamont Pass. Also, qualified San Francisco <--> San Jose, then also down the Coast Sub to Atascadero, CA (south of Paso Robles, CA).

For the most part being back on the lrb32 "Permanente Local", that has been my regular job.

My union involvement began when I moved to the SF Bay area. It was about the Fall of 2005 and I joined the BLET 283. Within a short time, I was asking about how I can help the Union. I told my local chair Luis Chavez, JR that if he had any suggestions, I would always try. It was suggested for the position of Legislative Representative. It has been a wonderful position. The history in the LR seat has been quite exciting.

First, having the attitude of employees able to call out safety issues began when I was directly in the same position to take a train down a steep grade with no brakes. This resulted in the same manager being kicked out of the area five months later. The most important aspect is that employees see how to stand up in a positive way for the carriers belief system--safety! I'm sure we all agree.

Another project of mine has been the Ozol yard office. This office used to flood many times, have mold, asbestos, open holes in front of the toilets, septic sludge backed up, toilets and/or sinks that don't drain, etc. The list continues and so did the excuses not to fix the building from corporate. Having the help from Cal OSHA, their helps has been greatly appreciated. The improvements to be made were changed into having a new "portable building". I have heard from many that it is much better than what was in the old building.

Tracking, finger printing, and running forensic evaluations against the carrier's production of electronic tapes had them thinking they were able to win any investigation, especially safety. After personally calling them on the carpet with the superintendent of Roseville, CA, there has been very few tapes "cut" to the carriers' advantage (you never know though). ANYONE can e-mail me tapes directly and I can do a fingerprint of your tapes. Furthermore, the carrier will send tapes or any other files via e-mail greater than 10 MB of size. They know this, but you don't....many ISP's will reject these e-mails. As my own UNIX server, I control it entirely. This is how the special tapes slipped right through and the carrier was not expected this to happen. Thus, no more tapes are sent to me.

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