ONLINE VERSION	VOLUME 106 - NUMBER 8 - SEPTEMBER 1997

GOP Congress, Amtrak Attack Contracting Out Prohibitions

Money is a great motivator and the GOP leadership is working to undercut workers rights by linking a $2.3 billion tax rebate for Amtrak to undefined "reforms" to be found in reauthorization legislation. House and Senate committees, voting along party lines, approved reauthorization language that abrogates union contracts by eliminating worker protections related to contracting out. It also would remove protections for employees who lose their jobs. Rail unions charge that Amtrak is working hand-in-hand with Republicans in orchestrating this attack, despite significant evidence that the change have no relationship to Amtrak's financial difficulties and would result in no cost savings. "Your misguided strategy has failed in every respect," BMWE President Mac A. Fleming wrote to Amtrak President Tom Downs in a letter signed by every member of Transportation Trades Department's (TTD) Rail Labor Division. "The battle for adequate funding continues unresolved. Amtrak's performance and financial condition deteriorates monthly. And your relations with your employees have reached an all-time low." The AFL-CIO went to the White House to expose Amtrak's hypocrisy and ill-will toward its employees through Downs' continued support for anti-worker policies that the Clinton Administration has clearly opposed. The White House refused to include these misnamed "reforms" in the budget bill. "It is clear that Mr. Downs effectively supports positions advocated by the Republican enemies of rail labor whose goal it is to use the legislative process to destroy longstanding protections embodied in law and private union contracts," wrote AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka. A GOP-appointed blue ribbon panel that recently investigated Amtrak's finances called both issues "red herrings." Experience bears out that statement. In fiscal year 1996, Amtrak laid off 4,000 workers at a minimal cost of $72,000, which primarily paid for two weeks' severance pay. The contracting out provision merely stop Amtrak from laying offf a current employee in order to contract out the work. Amtrak can, and does contract out tens of millions of dollars of work that does not involve laying off current employees.