As of March 23 at noon CT, four Union Pacific employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and one is presumed positive:
On March 10, one Engineering employee in Stockton, California, tested positive. This led to the self-quarantine of eight employees with direct contact.On March 14, a nonagreement manager in North Platte, Nebraska, tested positive. On March 19, a second North Platte manager tested positive as a result of direct contact with the first manager. Currently, 47 North Platte employees are in quarantine due to direct contact with these managers.An employee based at Omaha’s UP Center (UPC) tested positive. The employee, who traveled to the United Kingdom after March 6 and returned home March 17, has not been at UPC since returning home.On March 20, an employee in DeWitt, Iowa, was announced presumed positive, requiring the quarantine of 11 employees.
Our thoughts are with the impacted employees and their families as they recover from illness.
UP has a robust mitigation plan to continue to protect employees, and these protocols are quickly activated. For example, in North Platte, any areas where the affected employees may have worked have been professionally decontaminated by an external vendor specializing in sanitizing biohazardous environments.
As a reminder, employees commuting to work in areas where communities and state governments have ordered residents to shelter in place should print and carry this Union Pacific and Department of Homeland Security Travel Exemption document. Be prepared to show it, along with your railroad photo ID, to any law enforcement or emergency management officials to gain access to your required location. If employees are stopped on the way to or from work and local authorities do not honor the letter, employees should call UP’s Response Management Communications Center (RMCC) at 1-888-UPRRCOP (877-7267). The RMCC will then connect UP’s Police Department with local authorities.
Union general chairmen are receiving daily updates as the situation evolves. Stay tuned to UPOnline for additional COVID-19 updates.