Dispute Centered on Use of Contractors

At 6:00 a.m. on Friday, August 14, pickets went up at sites in 14 states in the Northeast and Midwest, as 3,400 BMWE members struck Conrail. As other unions, representing about 15,000 Conrail employees, honored the BMWE walkout, Conrail's freight lines were shut down until the afternoon, when U. S. District Judge James T. Giles, in Philadelphia, issued a temporary restraining order.

The strike was called because Conrail elected to use outside contractors to construct railroad track outside a Honda assembly plant in Marysville, Ohio (30 miles northwest of Columbus) after written promises were given to the BMWE that the track work would not be contracted out. Conrail ignored letters of protest from the BMWE and because of their failure to respond, the BMWE had no alternative but to set up picket lines.

"Conrail unilaterally broke their agreement with us for BMWE members to perform the track construction work in Marysville," said Jed Dodd, BMWE General Chairman. "We went on strike because Conrail's threat to our jobs and working lives by the illegal use of outside contractors must be stopped."

Added Perry Geller, BMWE General Chairman, "The illegal use of outside contractors to do work which our members perform threatens the very essence of our employment relationship with Conrail. We were left with no alternative except to strike when Conrail decided to use outside forces to construct track that they had previously agreed would be constructed by BMWE represented Conrail employees. Conrail created a situation that eliminated all other options for resolution that could have avoided a strike when they ignored our written protests."

Conrail, in the process of being carved up by CSX and Norfolk Southern, was originally set up by Congress in 1976 to reorganize six bankrupt railroads. It currently has about 23,500 employees and 11,000 miles of track.