BMWE Rejects Arbitration on Amtrak

30-Day Cooling-Off Period Ticking Away

At press time, a 30-day cooling-off period was ticking down to a possible strike on Amtrak September 5 after the BMWE rejected the National Mediation Board's arbitration offer.

After bargaining in good faith for nearly three years, BMWE and its members hope that they will be allowed to fight for decent wages, though the possibility of presidential intervention remains.

The BMWE is seeking to match wage increases received by maintenance of way workers under the national freight contract. Those rates simply keep inflation from eroding workers' paychecks.

BMWE already is briefing members of Congress on the issues should the dispute go the route of a presidential emergency board. That would delay any job action for another 60 days and put workers on a trajectory headed straight for Capitol Hill. In the past, Congress has stepped all over rail workers' rights to prevent passenger inconvenience due to a strike or lockout.

"Our members deserve a wage that, at a minimum, keeps up with inflation," said BMWE President Mac A. Fleming. "Amtrak's continued refusal to meet such basic needs shows the fundamental contempt with which the company holds its maintenance of way employees."

"Further delay only hurts BMWE members," continued Fleming. "Amtrak loves to delay because it saves money, but maintenance of way workers need and deserve a raise."

Responding to the budget cutting of the Republican Congress, Amtrak management put forth a plan to be subsidy free by the year 2002. That plan turns on keeping labor costs at a flat level, i.e., no wage increases into the next millennium.

"Amtrak workers' wages also have been lagging behind what's paid for similar work on commuter lines, even though most of those carriers are proportionately more heavily subsidized by taxpayers than Amtrak.

"Maintenance of way workers are fighting just to keep up, not get ahead," said Fleming. "Amtrak should be ashamed for trying to balance its budget on the backs of its workers."

Rejecting the notion that the United States should be the only industrialized nation that doesn't provide subsidies for a national rail system, the BMWE pointed out that Amtrak can afford to give workers reasonable wage increases. Combining the BMWE proposal with Amtrak's own business plan, federal subsidies still could be cut nearly in half on the average by 2002.

In other bargaining news, a tentative agreement was reached on the Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railroad and BMWE negotiators are scheduled to return to talks on the Delaware & Hudson and the Grand Trunk Western contracts in September.