Grand Lodge has been active, together with the rest of rail labor, the retirees and many private and public organizations, in securing funding for Amtrak. The Amtrak questions are complex ones involving history, issues of federal and state funding, national transportation policy and environmental questions, all set against a background of a backward management which is more likely to work against Amtrak’s long term interests than in favor of them. Amtrak has demonstrated a lack of honesty and integrity in the process and is generally disrespected on both sides of the aisle in Congress.

Amtrak, by federal law and policy, is our national rail passenger system — part of our national passenger transportation system. It serves to reduce traffic from crowded highways and airlines by providing an energy-efficient, ecologically friendly means of rapidly moving passengers in densely populated corridors and providing transportation alternatives to passengers in other parts of the United States. It was part of the Penn Central Railroad in the Northeast, and other freight roads throughout the U.S. until the mid-70s.

At that time, as part of a national policy to reinvigorate a declining rail industry, Amtrak was created in recognition of the fact that a national rail passenger system, though critical to overall U.S. passenger transportation, drains resources from private rail freight railroad companies, and must be publicly funded and dedicated primarily to moving passengers, just like rail passenger systems throughout the industrialized world. Subsequently the freight railroads were deregulated and in the early 80s were permitted to shed their commuter rail operations for similar reasons.

In order to obtain Rail Labor’s support in shedding passenger lines, it was necessary for Congress to provide Amtrak workers and commuter employees a level of pay and protections similar to those they were eligible for when they worked for the combined freight/passenger railroads. These protections were written into the federal statutes which created the solely passenger roads (Amtrak and the various commuters). As the commuter roads serve much more localized areas than Amtrak and are, therefore, funded by various federal and state subsidies, they developed a different bargaining pattern than Amtrak did, because Amtrak’s subsidies are primarily federal.

Amtrak’s bargaining pattern, because it provided long distance interstate and national passenger service, and operated over the track of other freight roads, mirrored national bargaining. The Amtrak collective bargaining agreements of virtually all of the non-ops provided similar increases to those of the national freight roads.

The commuter roads, where MofW members go home every day and do not work on 125 m.p.h. track, after a raucous beginning, continued to gain increases and other benefits at a much greater pace than BMWE members on the freights and, therefore, on Amtrak. Today, our members on the commuter roads earn approximately $3 per hour more than our members on the freights and on Amtrak. These commuter roads are generally located in high cost of living areas, as are the vast majority of Amtrak’s BMWE members.

Because of the nature of rail passenger service--highly intensive during the day with a much lighter schedule at night and on weekends--our Amtrak members provided Amtrak with incredibly productive work rules. Huge working districts, flexible starting times and weekend work for production gangs, including night work, were the norm as early as 1979. Our members provided Amtrak with the most productive work force that exists on any national passenger system on the planet earth.

But even this was not enough. With the advent of the Reagan administration, a constant and ever louder cry to underfund Amtrak developed. In 1981, the BMWE negotiated an agreement, together with the rest of Rail Labor in which they agreed that Amtrak members would defer increases received on the national freight roads until they were earning 12% less than their counterparts on those national freight roads. Amtrak then took the position that this was not a deferral but a concession.

As a result of this, Amtrak employees earned 12% less than their counterparts on the freight roads and substantially less than their counterparts on the commuter roads, even though many of them originally came from the freight roads when Amtrak was created. Also as a result of these concessions, BMWE’s presentation to the 1992 Presidential Emergency Board 222 included the fact that a newly hired Amtrak BMWE employee with a family of four working eight months per year on a production gang was eligible for food stamps.

From this point forward, the Reagan and Bush Administrations, with support from most Republicans and many Democrats, constantly pushed to underfund Amtrak. At one point during this period, President Reagan, in his State of the Union Address, called for Congress, as one of the Administration’s highest priorities, to completely defund Amtrak. Although this position made no sense, as Amtrak provides substantial public benefits (to the environment, to energy efficient travel and to supplement intercity travel in remote locations), has the most productive work force of any long distance passenger railroad in the world, obtains a larger percentage of its expenses from the fare box than any other long distance passenger railroad in the world, it caused Amtrak’s top management to continue to attempt to gouge its work force, even as it developed mechanisms to except itself from the austerity it was pushing on our members.

In order to be in tune with the Reagan band, Graham Claytor announced in the late 1980s that Amtrak would require no operating subsidies by the year 2000, a wholly unrealistic, stupid goal which was (and is) impossible to obtain. Once Claytor made this promise, many politicians of both parties decided they would hold Amtrak to it, even though they knew it was impossible to achieve and also knew that Amtrak is necessary to America’s overall transportation network.

While this was going on, BMWE was involved in the disastrous PEB 219 round of bargaining on the freight roads. As a result of this catastrophic round of bargaining, Grand Lodge leadership committed itself to seeing that the Amtrak and Conrail rounds of bargaining which were taking place over much of the same time period, did not end the same way as the PEB 219 round ended. Grand Lodge decided to provide the Amtrak and Conrail committees with massive resources and assistance to make certain that our members on both roads did better than our members did nationally.

As a result of this commitment of resources and assistance by Grand Lodge and the struggle waged by our Amtrak committees after PEB 219, our Amtrak membership obtained an agreement which, by the middle of 1995, restored these members to national levels. At that time, Grand Lodge and the Amtrak Committees fought a no-hold-barred struggle in Congress, with Amtrak, and with the Bush Administration which put our members on a par with the rest of freight Rail Labor. It is important to point out, however, that our members on the freight roads had only obtained the paltry wage increases recommended by PEB 219, recommendations rammed down our throats by a Democratically controlled Congress, which caused a substantial decline in the real wages of our members on the freight roads. On the one hand, Amtrak members were at national rate. On the other hand, this national rate included a substantial real wage cut for our members on the freight roads.

This leads us to where we are now. As a result of the programs and in-your-face strategies and tactics put into effect by Grand Lodge, the System Committees, the Local Committees and the membership, and the invaluable assistance of AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka, we obtained an inflation-maintenance agreement for the national freight roads, a degree of job protection, a moderate increase in our meals, lodging, health, welfare and supplemental sickness benefits allowance and a less-than-cost travel allowance, some improvements in our production gang rules and a long needed upgrade of our off-track vehicle accident plan. We obtained some other moderate enhancements also. We did not make up for the substantial real wage cut and onerous work rules we took nationally during the 219 round. But judged on its own merits, we held our own at the national level.

In addition to the freight roads that were involved in the national round, the Soo Line and the SP (now owned by the UP) also settled agreements that fit within the framework of our national agreement. When we offered this to Amtrak, it simply refused to negotiate seriously. Making the tired arguments that they could not afford the national package, it made a series of offers that were simply insulting. Amtrak constantly refused to send its chief negotiator to the bargaining table, even when the National Mediation Board requested it to do so. In August 1996, one month after we reached tentative agreement on the national freight package, we requested the NMB to proffer arbitration, because fiscal year 1997 would commence soon afterwards. We wanted to make certain that our national agreement increases, benefits improvements and rules would be calculated into Amtrak’s budget projections.

Well, the NMB did not proffer until July 7, 1997. Amtrak attempted to convince the NMB to wait until the next fiscal year commenced, even though its budget did not include these national improvements. The Amtrak BMWE Committees were not willing to wait even longer, knowing that no matter when the release would come that Amtrak would scream that the national increases were not included in its budget.

Now we are engaged in the process. Grand Lodge has committed substantial resources and assistance to the Amtrak Committees in order that they be able to obtain what they deem best for the Amtrak membership. Grand Lodge has approved several outside consultants and assigned many of its key staff to help the Amtrak Committees in the event a presentation must be made to a Presidential Emergency Board and to explain our plight to Congress. It has also reached out to the AFL-CIO which is providing active assistance through the offices of Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. Grand Lodge is committed to do whatever it can to assist our Amtrak members in obtaining an agreement that is acceptable to the Amtrak Committees and membership.