"Bon Apetít" drawn by Leslie Suter and submitted by Perry Rapier.

Following on the heels of their official move to try to raid the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), the United Transportation Union (UTU) announced in January its support of the Conrail take-over by CSX and Norfolk Southern (NS).

Although momentarily stunned, the rest of rail labor, united in the Rail Division of the AFL-CIO-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD), never wavered in their efforts to fight against the Conrail carve-up. The TTD continued to urge Congress to join the fight against another bad mega-merger. Not only will the Conrail carve-up destroy close to 3,000 jobs and erode worker and public safety, the TTD said, the carriers are seeking the right to unilaterally change or break collective bargaining agreements. "This request is an assault on the collective bargaining process and we ask you to join us in condemning this insidious practice," said TTD.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) joined with TTD in testifying before the Surface Transportation Board (STB) on October 27, 1997 to highlight safety and service problems experienced by the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) since its merger with Southern Pacific (SP).

"It seems that the railroads are accountable to no one because the Board has been reluctant to take definitive action," said DeFazio. "You have the trust of the American people in your hands and if you do not take prompt and decisive action, my constituents and other Americans will be at the mercy of an industry that has failed them miserably.

We should be able to expect more from you as regulators and you should expect more from the railroads you regulate," DeFazio emphasized.

Citing the pending review of the Conrail break-up, TTD told regulators, "... instead of engaging in promising rhetoric with little action" the Board must "learn the lessons of the UP/SP situation and ensure that history does not repeat itself."

The BMWE, along with others in rail labor, has been active in trying to get shippers to oppose the merger. All were hit hard when the shippers' organization, the National Industrial Transportation League (NIT), which earlier had demanded guarantees from the STB that the Conrail break-up would not lead to rate increases and other service problems that are plaguing the UP Railroad, reached a settlement with CSX and NS and withdrew its plans to aggressively pursue most "conditions" in the Conrail transaction.

The Department of Transportation had earlier warned the STB of the possible adverse consequences of sacrificing safety to achieve cost reductions.

"A shortsighted safety culture in a company may indicate that cost reduction is valued over safety," it wrote. "This can lead to employee misunderstandings, lack of communication, irritability, fatigue, low morale, perception of intimidation, loss of talent and institutional knowledge, and other undesirable traits which can significantly increase exposure to incidents and injuries."

Conrail Carve-Up Tentative Schedule

May 29, 1998 Final Environmental Impact Statement served

June 4, 1998 Oral Argument

June 8, 1998 Voting Conference

July 23, 1998 Final Decision served