UP Engineer Earns Top Safety Honor

Union Pacific Locomotive Engineer and TSC (Total Safety Culture) Coordinator Wade Wilde of Ogden, Utah, has received the Class I railroad’s 2020 J.C. Kenefick Safety Award.

The annual award was presented during a virtual ceremony, which UP recently shared on Twitter. Named after former UP Vice Chairman, CEO and President John Kenefick, the award has been the top safety honor for a union employee since 1986. (Kenefick “guided the company into the era deregulation after the passage of the Staggers Act in 1980,” and worked to more than double the railroad’s size through acquisitions and to gain access to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, UP noted on its website.)

Wilde, the 2020 honoree, is a 16-year railroader who works in the Rocky Mountain Service Unit and is actively involved as a leader in the TSC program. A voluntary employee-led initiative, TSC “teaches employees safe behaviors while providing observations and feedback,” according to UP. “TSC directly empowers our union employees to address at-risk behaviors and receives the full backing of senior management.”