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Brady Wassam, 30, of Columbia Falls, photographed on May 2. Wassam worked for BNSF Railway as a locomotive engineer for eight years but left in March after the railroad instituted a new attendance policy.

Brady Wassam knew what to expect when he took a job on the railroad. Wassam, 30, of Columbia Falls, came from a family of railroaders who have spent years moving freight over the mountains of northwest Montana.

“It’s a family affair [and] I knew what I was getting into,” he said. “I knew I would get called to work in the middle of the night. I knew I’d have no regular schedule. I knew that because that’s how my family lived.”

Freight trains don’t usually run on a set schedule and they don’t stop moving just because it’s a weekend or holiday. However, on the flip side of that unpredictable lifestyle was the fact that for many years railroads could provide workers with great compensation and benefits without requiring a college degree. The good pay and benefits were the reasons Wassam hired on back in 2014.

But Wassam says working conditions on BNSF Railway, one of the largest railroads in the country, have worsened in the last few years, and the introduction of a new attendance policy earlier this year — one union officials have called “the worst and most egregious attendance policy ever adopted by any rail carrier” — was his last straw. He resigned in March and he’s not alone. In the last three months, more than 700 railroaders have walked off the job at BNSF because of it, according to the union.

“It felt offensive,” Wassam said of the new attendance policy. “I gave so much to this job, and this new system made it seem like it wasn’t enough.”

Federal law mandates that locomotive engineers, conductors and other railroad employees work no more than 12 hours a day and have a minimum of 10 hours off between shifts. But even with those hours written in stone, working for the railroad can be a chaotic existence — one day an engineer might go to work at 9 a.m., and the next day they might start at 5 p.m. Not to mention the fact that half the time they would be spending their off time away from home, taking their 10 hours rest and waiting to take another train back to their home terminal. Wassam said the unusual hours made living a normal life nearly impossible, even more so with a family.

“You give up so much when you work for the railroad, but it impacts your family even more,” he said, adding that for years he’s never known if he’ll be able to be home for holidays and other special events.

Wassam said when he started at the railroad, employees could normally take five weekdays and two weekend days off per month. At the beginning of each month, the railroad would look back at the last 90 days, and if an employee had been available to work 75% of the time then they remained in good standing, according to Wassam. That system made it possible to take personal days for things like doctor’s appointments, family commitments and more.

It was also possible to predict when you might go to work in the next day or so, Wassam said. Railroads have “pools” of engineers and conductors that work certain segments of railroads, such as Whitefish to Havre. When a train arrived at a terminal they would call the first available engineer and conductor to take it to its next destination. If those employees weren’t available, they would call employees off the “extra board,” who tended to have less seniority on the job and an even more chaotic schedule. Calling employees off the extra board avoided disrupting the schedule for the regular pool employees, meaning if an engineer or conductor knew there were eight crews ahead of them on the call list they could make an educated guess about when they might be called to run a train — regardless of whether someone ahead of them decided to take a personal day or called in sick.

But not long after Wassam got hired, BNSF changed how it assigned its employees to trains. Instead of having them work the same stretch of track every trip, the company would call employees to work trains going in any direction out of their home base: Instead of working from Whitefish to Havre on every run, Wassam might instead get called to take a train to Spokane. At about the same time, BNSF also decided to put fewer employees on the “extra board,” Wassam said. Those two things combined to make it even harder to figure out when an employee might get called to work.

Wassam and other BNSF employees that Montana Free Press spoke with said the change made an already challenging work-life balance worse, but it was nothing compared to what was announced in January. Starting Feb. 1, the railroad implemented a new attendance policy called “Hi-Viz” that assigns all employees 30 points. If they miss a call or take an unplanned day off, even for a family emergency, sickness or fatigue, they lose points. The exact number of points deducted depends on the type of absence and where it falls on the calendar (weekend days and holidays cost more points). An employee can get four points back if they’re available to work 14 days in a row. If an employee loses all their points, they can be disciplined. If they lose their points multiple times they can be fired.

In a statement to MTFP, BNSF spokesperson Lena Kent wrote that the new policy was implemented to “improve the consistency of crews being available for their shifts to run trains,” particularly during the ongoing supply-chain crisis, which has hobbled nearly every sector of the transportation industry. Railroad officials also noted that BNSF had not updated its attendance policy in more than 20 years and wanted to make it more consistent with the rest of the industry.

“We understand that change is hard but, as with every other railroad and service business, delivering for our customers requires employees to be available to work their assigned shifts,” Kent wrote.

But the labor unions, including the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division, which represent more than 17,000 BNSF employees, didn’t see it that way and immediately began polling members on whether or not to go on strike over the new policy.

“This draconian attendance policy has made a poor work environment even worse,” Greg Regan, president of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, told MTFP.

Before the unions could finish polling members on whether or not to strike, BNSF filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking a restraining order against any work stoppage. A federal judge in Texas ruled in favor of the railroad, thus precluding a strike. Railroad-labor relations are governed by the Railway Labor Act of 1926. It was the first federal law that guaranteed the right of workers to organize, but it also set a high bar for when a railroad union could strike, which could cripple the economy.

Regan said most of the big railroads in North America have “severe” attendance policies, but that BNSF’s new Hi-Viz policy is by far the worst, in his opinion. Because of it, many railroaders have quit. According to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen and SMART Transportation Division, more than 700 operating employees have resigned since Feb. 1, and some have said the number is even higher. But during a recent hearing in Washington, D.C., a BNSF executive called that figure “greatly exaggerated.” BNSF declined to offer its own figure to MTFP.

BNSF officials wrote that its operating employees receive three to four weeks vacation and more than 10 “Personal Leave Days,” which was increased by 25% at the beginning of the year. Since Hi-Viz was implemented, the railroad said it has seen more employees using vacation days.

“BNSF team members drive our success and we couldn’t deliver the nation’s goods without them,” Kent wrote. “We believe we can adapt together to meet today’s competitive freight environment.”

Wassam said he was already growing tired of the railroad lifestyle before the new attendance policy went into effect — especially since he has three young children at home and rarely gets to see them. Because of the solid benefits the industry provides, including a federally run retirement program separate from Social Security, railroaders often think twice about leaving, but Wassam said Hi-Viz pushed him over the line.

While Wassam no longer works for the railroad, he’s still frustrated by what he’s seeing because he has friends and family who still work in the industry. He’s not only worried about the impacts the new policy will have on railroaders’ personal lives, but also on safety, particularly if employees feel they have to go to work fatigued because they fear losing points. He also worried that the railroad might use its shrinking employee numbers as an excuse to implement one-person crews, a practice that labor groups have fought vigorously in recent years. Presently, most freight trains are staffed with two people, but there is no law preventing there being only one employee on a train.

BNSF’s labor strife comes at a precarious time for America’s freight railroads. In recent months, some of the largest railroads in America, including BNSF, have struggled to deliver reliable service to customers, with trains running slower and freight cars sitting longer in rail yards waiting for deliveries. Service has gotten so bad that the federal regulator that oversees the industry called executives from four of the country’s largest railroads to a hearing last week in Washington, D.C., to explain themselves. BNSF’s Vice President of Transportation Matt Garland admitted during the hearing that his company’s “service has not met our own expectations,” but said that it was quickly hiring more workers and taking old locomotives out of storage to meet demand.

In 2021, BNSF posted record-breaking profits, despite moving fewer carloads of freight than it had before the pandemic.

Regan, the president of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, said the railroad’s decision to implement a strict new attendance policy while making billions of dollars in profit has resulted in a demoralized workforce. Because of that, he’s not surprised that some employees are calling it quits.

Wassam said he loved working for the railroad — “Driving a train is every little kid’s dream, and I got to do that for eight years” — but that he has no regrets about leaving. He recently became an electrician apprentice and said he’s loving every minute of it, particularly because he can be home with his family every night.

“In the weeks since I left the railroad, I’ve been to my kids’ dance competitions, Jiu Jitsu competitions and wrestling matches,” he said. “It’s been so great to be able to tell my kids, ‘Yeah, I’ll be there.’”

Despite rising high school graduation rates, the number of students getting college degrees in the U.S. has dropped. Why the decrease in college enrollment?

One reason could be the ballooning costs of attending university. In the face of expensive tuition fees and potential debt, students may seek other opportunities outside of education. While workers with an associate's or bachelor's degree do earn more on average, there are some relatively high-paying careers out there for people without a college degree.

Career research site CareerTrends found the 50 highest-paying jobs that don't require a college degree. Using 2015 data from O*NET, an occupation database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, the team identified the required education level for workers in various occupations. We then used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the jobs with the highest salaries that don't typically require an associate's, bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree. Salaries in this list reflect national averages.

To identify the expected prior education for each job, O*NET regularly surveys each occupation's worker population and asks respondents to note the level of education they believe is required for the job. The prior education listed on each slide corresponds to the most common response from job survey respondents. If a job has multiple education listings it is because there were roughly equal amounts of respondents who gave that answer.

The average salary for jobs on this list is around $62,000. However, the top-paying job boasts a six-figure salary on average. Most of these occupations require high school education and range from sales and management positions to more creative jobs like makeup artists and painters.

*Note: Some of these jobs may require a specific trade degree, certificate or licensing program in addition to the education level listed on each slide.

Average Salary: $51,130 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Sort mail for delivery. Deliver mail on established route by vehicle or on foot.

*Note: Descriptions for each job were sourced (with minor edits) from the BLS Standard Occupational Classification system.

Average Salary: $51,340 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Lay, repair and maintain track for standard or narrow-gauge railroad equipment used in regular railroad service or in plant yards, quarries, sand and gravel pits and mines. Includes ballast cleaning machine operators and railroad bed tamping machine operators.

Average Salary: $51,560 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Create new dance routines. Rehearse performance of routines. May direct and stage presentations.

Average Salary: $51,750 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Lay and bind building materials, such as brick, structural tile, concrete block, cinder block, glass block and terra-cotta block, with mortar and other substances to construct or repair walls, partitions, arches, sewers and other structures.

Average Salary: $52,580 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Place and detonate explosives to demolish structures or to loosen, remove or displace earth, rock or other materials. May perform specialized handling, storage and accounting procedures. Includes seismograph shooters. Operate a variety of drills such as rotary, churn and pneumatic to tap sub-surface water and salt deposits, to remove core samples during mineral exploration or soil testing, and to facilitate the use of explosives in mining or construction. May use explosives. Includes horizontal and earth boring machine operators.

Average Salary: $52,650 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Install, dismantle or move machinery and heavy equipment according to layout plans, blueprints or other drawings.

Average Salary: $52,870 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Select, fit and take care of costumes for cast members and aid entertainers. May assist with multiple costume changes during performances.

Average Salary: $53,080 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Seal joints between plasterboard or other wallboard to prepare wall surface for painting or papering.

Average Salary: $53,640 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Plan, direct or coordinate activities of an organization or department that serves food and beverages.

Average Salary: $53,990 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate railroad track switches. Couple or uncouple rolling stock to make up or break up trains. Signal engineers by hand or flagging. May inspect couplings, air hoses, journal boxes and hand brakes.

Average Salary: $54,030 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Position and secure steel bars or mesh in concrete forms in order to reinforce concrete. Use a variety of fasteners, rod-bending machines, blowtorches and hand tools. Includes rod busters.

Average Salary: $54,130 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Diagnose, adjust, repair or overhaul railroad rolling stock, mine cars or mass transit rail cars.

Average Salary: $54,170 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Create original artwork using any of a wide variety of media and techniques.

Average Salary: $54,200 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Install and repair telecommunications cable, including fiber optics.

Average Salary: $54,540 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Monitor locomotive instruments and watch for dragging equipment, obstacles on rights-of-way and train signals during run. Watch for and relay traffic signals from yard workers to yard engineer in railroad yard.

Average Salary: $54,560 Prior Education: Some College or Associate's Degree, High School Education

Job Description: Operate mechanical boom and cable or tower and cable equipment to lift and move materials, machines or products in many directions.

Average Salary: $54,750 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Raise, place and unite iron or steel girders, columns and other structural members to form completed structures or structural frameworks. May erect metal storage tanks and assemble prefabricated metal buildings.

Average Salary: $55,100 Prior Education: Some College or Associate's Degree, High School Education

Job Description: Lay out, assemble, install or maintain pipe systems, pipe supports or related hydraulic or pneumatic equipment for steam, hot water, heating, cooling, lubricating, sprinkling or industrial production or processing systems.

Average Salary: $55,120 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate diesel or electric-powered shuttle car in underground mine to transport materials from working face to mine cars or conveyor.

Average Salary: $55,150 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate pile drivers mounted on skids, barges, crawler treads or locomotive cranes to drive pilings for retaining walls, bulkheads and foundations of structures, such as buildings, bridges and piers.

Average Salary: $55,500 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate machinery to install roof support bolts in underground mine.

Average Salary: $55,530 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Control and monitor biomass plant activities and perform maintenance as needed.

Average Salary: $56,760 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Coordinate activities of switch-engine crew within railroad yard, industrial plant or similar location. Conductors coordinate activities of train crew on passenger or freight trains. Yardmasters review train schedules and switching orders and coordinate activities of workers engaged in railroad traffic operations, such as the makeup or breakup of trains and yard switching.

Average Salary: $57,510 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate steam, gas, electric motor or internal combustion engine driven compressors. Transmit, compress or recover gases, such as butane, nitrogen, hydrogen and natural gas.

Average Salary: $58,410 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Rent, buy or sell property for clients. Perform duties, such as study property listings, interview prospective clients, accompany clients to property site, discuss conditions of sale and draw up real estate contracts. Includes agents who represent buyer.

Average Salary: $58,470 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Directly supervise and coordinate activities of transportation and material-moving machine and vehicle operators and helpers.

Average Salary: $59,070 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Control or operate entire chemical processes or system of machines.

Average Salary: $59,360 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Drive electric, diesel-electric, steam or gas-turbine-electric locomotives to transport passengers or freight. Interpret train orders, electronic or manual signals and railroad rules and regulations.

Average Salary: $59,930 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Directly supervise and coordinate the activities of production and operating workers, such as inspectors, precision workers, machine setters and operators, assemblers, fabricators and plant and system operators.

Average Salary: $60,380 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Set up or operate a variety of drills to remove underground oil and gas or remove core samples for testing during oil and gas exploration.

Average Salary: $60,480 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Operate equipment, such as steam engines, generators, motors, turbines and steam boilers.

Average Salary: $60,580 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate subway or elevated suburban trains with no separate locomotive or electric-powered streetcar to transport passengers. May handle fares.

Average Salary: $60,660 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Construct, assemble, maintain and repair stationary steam boilers and boiler house auxiliaries. Align structures or plate sections to assemble boiler frame tanks or vats, following blueprints. Work involves use of hand and power tools, plumb bobs, levels, wedges, dogs or turnbuckles. Assist in testing assembled vessels. Direct cleaning of boilers and boiler furnaces. Inspect and repair boiler fittings, such as safety valves, regulators, automatic-control mechanisms, water columns and auxiliary machines.

Average Salary: $61,270 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Enforce law and order in rural or unincorporated districts or serve legal processes of courts. May patrol courthouse, guard court or grand jury or escort defendants.

Average Salary: $62,770 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Directly supervise and coordinate activities of correctional officers and jailers.

Average Salary: $62,820 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Test the safety of structures, vehicles or vessels using x-ray, ultrasound, fiber optic or related equipment.

Average Salary: $66,020 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate or control petroleum refining or processing units. May specialize in controlling manifold and pumping systems, gauging or testing oil in storage tanks or regulating the flow of oil into pipelines.

Average Salary: $66,560 Prior Education: Some College or Associate's Degree, High School Education

Job Description: Apply makeup to performers to reflect period, setting and situation of their role.

Average Salary: $69,130 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Create original written works, such as scripts, essays, prose, poetry or song lyrics, for publication or performance.

Average Salary: $69,180 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Examine, evaluate and investigate eligibility for, conformity with or liability under licenses or permits.

Average Salary: $70,540 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Plan, direct or coordinate operational, administrative, management and supportive services of a U.S. post office; or coordinate activities of workers engaged in postal and related work in assigned post office.

Average Salary: $71,070 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Control, operate or maintain machinery to generate electric power. Includes auxiliary equipment operators.

Average Salary: $73,480 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Prepare customs documentation and ensure that shipments meet all applicable laws to facilitate the import and export of goods. Determine and track duties and taxes payable and process payments on behalf of client. Sign documents under a power of attorney. Represent clients in meetings with customs officials and apply for duty refunds and tariff reclassifications. Coordinate transportation and storage of imported goods.

Average Salary: $77,770 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Plan, direct or coordinate gaming operations in a casino. May formulate house rules.

Average Salary: $79,620 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Collect evidence at crime scene, classify and identify fingerprints and photograph evidence for use in criminal and civil cases, and investigate. Inspect persons, common carriers, goods and merchandise, arriving in or departing from the United States or between states to detect violations of immigration and customs laws and regulations.

Average Salary: $80,400 Prior Education: Some College or Associate's Degree, High School Education

Job Description: Coordinate, regulate or distribute electricity or steam.

Average Salary: $80,490 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Compete in athletic events.

Average Salary: $83,150 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Command ships to steer them into and out of harbors, estuaries, straits or sounds, or on rivers, lakes or bays. Must be licensed by U.S. Coast Guard with limitations indicating class and tonnage of vessels for which license is valid and route and waters that may be piloted.

Average Salary: $88,820 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Operate or control nuclear reactors. Move control rods, start and stop equipment, monitor and adjust controls and record data in logs. Implement emergency procedures when needed. May respond to abnormalities, determine cause and recommend corrective action.

Average Salary: $102,860 Prior Education: High School Education

Job Description: Sell financial services, such as loan, tax and securities counseling to customers of financial institutions and business establishments.

This story is printed with the permission of the Montana Free Press. The original story can be accessed here.

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Brady Wassam, 30, of Columbia Falls, photographed on May 2. Wassam worked for BNSF Railway as a locomotive engineer for eight years but left in March after the railroad instituted a new attendance policy.

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