BY BILL ARTH
NEWARK, New Jersey - Members of the United Transportation Union (UTU) have voted by a 54 percent majority to reject a contract proposal from the National Carriers Conference Committee, the employers' organization involving most major U.S. freight railroads. This was the first UTU rank-and-file ratification vote on a national contract. Its terms would have covered 50,000 conductors, brakemen, and yardmasters.

Many rail workers were dissatisfied with the wage package. The contract called for a 3.5 percent increase on ratification, retroactive to Dec. 1, 1995, and similar raises in July of 1997 and 1999. It also called for a 1 percent lump sum "signing bonus," as well as lump sums of 3 percent in 1996 and 3.5 percent in 1998. These would not be rolled into the basic wage rate. Up to half of this increase could have been deducted to pay for increased medical expenses. A cost-of-living allowance would have kicked in when the contract expired, on the last day of the 20th century.

Luis Santana, a Conrail brakeman in New Jersey, said, "We're getting shortchanged. I don't understand how CEOs are getting $4 million, $5 million, or $6 million and we're getting 1 percent."

Another sore point with many rail workers was the provisions intended to pressure them to take less time off work. The proposal increased the number of required days of work to qualify for medical and dental benefits from one day in the previous month to seven days, and increased by 50 percent the number of days required to qualify for a vacation. The contract also reduced from five days to 48 hours the length of time a worker who was bumped from a job would have to bump onto another job.

The proposal included mechanisms for union-company collaboration on the further erosion of work rules. A section called "Enhanced Customer Service" allowed the railroads to institute on a "six-month trial basis" practices that violate work rules on "starting times, yard limits, calling rules, on/off duty points, and class of service restrictions." A "Joint Committee" of union and company representatives would assess "whether a need really exists" for the rules violations in order to "provide more efficient service" or "attract or retain a customer."

UTU officials sponsored meetings around the country to sell the proposal to the ranks. These meetings were modestly attended. Officials at the meetings stated that such a good proposal was possible only because of help from the Democratic White House. They warned that if the contract was rejected, a worse contract would be imposed by a Republican-controlled Congress.

Under the Railway Labor Act, a series of federal laws put in place mostly in the 1920s to hamstring the right of rail workers to strike, Congress can directly intervene to stop rail and airline strikes. Since 1963, Congress has intervened in at least a dozen strikes, including legislating the end of a 19-hour national strike on April 17, 1991. At that time, UTU officials ordered rail workers to return to work so as not to challenge the "friends of labor" in the Democratic Party who then had a majority in Congress. This was especially important, the officials argued, because rail unions needed to be seen as patriotic during the war then being waged against the working people of Iraq.

The recent rash of fatal rail accidents has put a spotlight on the central issues facing rail workers: a reduced number of workers are working long hours moving more freight over less track with deteriorating equipment. At the same time, the railroad companies are posting giant profits and are pushing for mergers and work rule changes so they can make even more money. In 1985 the rail bosses got top union officials to sign concession contracts to begin to eliminate brakemen from crews. Since that time, crew sizes on most railroads have been slashed from an engineer, conductor, and two brakemen, to crews consisting of an engineer and conductor only. Wages for new hires have been slashed by 25 percent, while wages for workers with seniority have stagnated.

Many rail workers saw the current contract negotiations as an opportunity to make up some lost ground at a time when the railroads are making big profits. Instead, they saw the proposed contract as a continuation of concessions, and with their they vote said, "Not this time." Darryl Davis, a Conrail conductor in New Jersey, said. "From all the conversations I have with other people, every contract got worse and worse. They gave them a lump sum and they ran with it. It's about being greedy. This needed to be voted down. It wasn't worth nothing. Just take, take, take."

With the rejection, the negotiations will continue to wind their way through the elaborate procedures established by the Railway Labor Act.

In another railroad contract under negotiation, the Transportation Communications Union (TCU) has served notice of a May 9 strike deadline. The TCU represents carmen and clerks, who are facing massive job elimination due partly to computerization. The railroads have stonewalled in negotiations, demanding work rule concessions and sweeping rollbacks in health and welfare coverage. About 35 members of the TCU held an informational picket April 11 in front of Conrail's corporate headquarters in Philadelphia. Most were clerks who were laid off last summer after some 25 years working for the company, who were protesting the low railroad unemployment benefits and demanding better treatment.

Bill Arth is a member of the UTU at Conrail in New Jersey. UTU members Dennis Richter at Conrail in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania; Jeff Powers at the Burlington Northern/Santa Fe in Washington state; Jane Roland at Norfolk and Southern in North Carolina; and Glova Scott in Philadelphia contributed to this article.  
 
 
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