Amtrak unions plan a one-day strike
Oct. 3 to shut down the passenger railroad in protest of proposed
federal funding cuts and to show the need for its services.
Amtrak may seek an injunction against a walkout, spokesman
Clifford Black said. The workers, who are in contract talks, are
barred from striking until a federally mandated negotiating
process is completed. The plan includes six unions representing
8,000 engineers, mechanics and other employees, said Charles
Moneypenny, head of the Transport Workers Union’s rail division.
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“We anticipate that all of our employees will abide by
existing contracts and the law,” Amtrak President David Gunn
said in a statement. A strike would affect about 60,000 Amtrak
passengers as well as commuter railways in New York, Philadelphia
and Washington that use Amtrak tracks.
The U.S. House has approved a $900 million operating subsidy
for Washington-based Amtrak in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1,
and the Senate bill calls for $1.35 billion. The railroad, which
lost a record $1.2 billion in the year that ended in September
2002, wants $1.81 billion, up from the current $1.05 billion
subsidy. Gunn has said funding of $900 million would force a
shutdown during the year.
The House funding proposal matches the plan from President
George W. Bush’s administration for next fiscal year. Bush’s long-
term plan calls for shifting federal rail subsidies to the states
instead of Amtrak.
“If a one-day shutdown gives the public a snapshot of the
inconvenience they will face without trains, then it will be
worth it,” said Moneypenny, whose union represents Amtrak
mechanics and onboard service workers.
Gunn said that “Amtrak has a legal and public-service
obligation to provide intercity passenger rail service. It is
because so many Americans are able to depend on Amtrak that the
railroad needs to be adequately funded as we requested.”
The other Amtrak unions planning to strike are the
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the Brotherhood of
Maintenance of Way Employes, the Service Employees International
Union’s national council of firemen and oilers, the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Hotel Employees and
Restaurant Employees International Union.
The United Transportation Union, which represents Amtrak
conductors, isn’t backing the protest, though it will honor any
picket lines, spokesman Frank Wilner said.
“We can be more effective working with Congress and the
administration than using a bullhorn on the street,” he said.
About 20,000 of Amtrak’s 23,000 workers are members of
unions, Black said. The railroad is in talks with 12 of the 13
unions that represents its employees and has a tentative
agreement with the United Transportation Union, he said.
Bloomberg News
