As many of you recall from last year, BNSF downscaled its hiring plans significantly as the year progressed. This was due to an alleged downturn in business and several other factors. The result was that we began 2025 with considerably fewer members on the rosters than we had in 2024.  As a result of the disparity between attrition in 2024 and new hires for the year, we lost 2.5% of our active membership on the BNSF.  As you will see in a subsequent article, this is in line with reductions we have seen for several years after hitting highs in staffing levels around 2016.

For 2025, BNSF has stated that it intends to hire to attrition, which is estimated to be approximately 100 people.  While the BNSF has failed to meet its target hiring goals in recent years, there are some factors at play that might make 2025 an exception, such as increasing unemployment numbers in the public sector and elsewhere.

We were hoping to increase our headcount on BNSF in 2025, since we have seen several years of reductions, so the Carrier’s hiring plan is not the news we were hoping for.