BY RUTH ROBINETT AND LINDA MARCUS-LEONARD
NEW YORK - Under a banner reading "Amtrak Workers United for Decent Wages and Working Conditions - Stop the Cuts," members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, and the United Transportation Union (UTU) at Amtrak greeted Staten Island ferry passengers during the morning rush hour June 13.
The more than 60 rail unionists distributed 15,000 flyers protesting the Amtrak Reform and Privatization Act, which was to be voted on the next day by the House of Representatives Committee on Infrastructure and Transportation. The House Subcommittee on Railroads, which initiated the legislation, is chaired by Rep. Susan Molinari from Staten Island.
The protest was coordinated by the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. It was the first public action organized by the unions against the proposed cuts in service and jobs that Amtrak workers have been facing from congressional legislation and Amtrak's management. The bill was later defeated in committee.
Major cuts being carried out by Amtrak's management - as well as government measures such as this bill - strike at the heart of maintaining a national passenger rail service. In December 1994, Amtrak president and board chairman Thomas Downs announced a major reorganization plan to close a $200 million budget deficit this year. He proposed slashing 21 percent of rail service and 24 percent of the union workforce. Most of these cuts are to take place by September 10. The Wall Street Journal applauded Amtrak's management, stating that "costly union work rules" were one reason for Amtrak's budget problems.
1,200 jobs cut so far
These first cuts have been mostly in the west, Midwest,
and south. So far, some 1,200 workers have lost their jobs.
Additional routes are slated to be eliminated or reduced in
September and October.
Jeff Payne, a conductor on the rail line, said, "Amtrak will at least use this restructuring to get more `productivity' and eliminate jobs, so we should oppose it. It's just a ruse that this will ever be profitable. No passenger system anywhere in the world is. They'd like to cut this workforce to the bone and rehire all workers nonunion. Safety and workers training, which are totally inadequate now, would be a joke without a union."
The government proposal to privatize Amtrak contained sweeping antilabor measures that would have severely weakened the unions. There were three provisions in the bill that specifically overrode current union contracts. The bill would have authorized Amtrak to subcontract out all work, repealed the layoff protection in union agreements, and eliminated the dual seniority that workers hired before 1983 hold with both Conrail and Amtrak. Dual seniority allows these workers to "flow back" between the two rail companies every six months through bidding on jobs.
In addition, the bill proposed Amtrak decide on routes based on profit, ending the requirement to operate a minimum nationwide basic system.
Amtrak was chartered in 1971 when the freight railroads no longer wanted to be saddled with passenger service. The safety and infrastructure requirements of a high-speed passenger service were cutting into the profitability of the rail bosses.
The Interstate Commerce Commission intervened to maintain a national passenger rail service whose routes would utilize trackage owned by various freight carriers. Through massive subsidies the federal government set up a stockholder corporation- the National Railroad Passenger Corp. (AMTRAK).
The Amtrak Reform and Privatization Act was a genuine giveaway to business. That law instructed Amtrak to "promote the potential privatization of Amtrak's operations." It mandated that within three months of passage the Department of Transportation's preferred stock, valued at $8.6 billion, and the federal liens and mortgages on Amtrak's assets would be voided. Under this scheme Amtrak would be required to purchase its 9.4 million shares of common stock. Burlington Northern, Inc., holding 3.3 million shares, and the Penn Central Corp., with 5.2 million shares, would profit handsomely.
Amtrak's 1994 annual report valued its property and equipment at $4.3 billion. Relieved of all government liens, Amtrak's net value would be $3.1 billion. As Bill Braden, an Amtrak conductor and UTU member, said, "This is just a setup for a giant corporate raid. Amtrak could be plundered."
Amtrak inherited the private rail carriers' antiquated rolling stock. Amtrak has aging locomotives (the average age is 22 years) and deteriorating stations and repair facilities. During the 1980s the government limited the capital appropriations the railroad needed to buy new trains and refurbish its facilities. "Amtrak lets the cars and track run down and cuts the men," explained Tom Bailey, a conductor.
`Deserve medals for keeping it running'
Today, Amtrak's rolling stock includes 40-year-old-plus
coaches. As Braden pointed out to a member of Congressman
Bob Frank's staff at a protest in New Jersey recently, "You
want to make Amtrak right? Where's the appropriations for
the new equipment? We don't deserve to lose our jobs. We
deserve medals for keeping this stuff running."
Even on the northeast corridor, home of Amtrak's high- speed Metroliner, the electric propulsion system is 60 years old. The railroad's electric transmission system, built by the Pennsylvania Rail Road in the mid-1930s, was once state-of-the-art. An engineer told the Washington Post that today the switching gear and circuit breakers "belong in a museum."
Bridges and tunnels need to be refurbished. For example, a 123-year-old Baltimore tunnel needs updated evacuation routes and renovation, and the Hudson and East River tunnels into Penn Station, New York, also need repair and improvement. Amtrak's president Downs told the Newark Star Ledger, "New Jersey Transit spends more on capital improvements each year than Amtrak, by almost $100 million. And we have 24,000 miles in our system, compared to 450 miles in New Jersey. "
Passenger trains are an energy-efficient, safe, and nonpolluting method of public transportation. In many cases trains provide the only viable method of transport, especially from rural areas. Myrna Diaz, an Amtrak conductor, explained, "We need Amtrak for young people, older folks, and poorer working people to tour around, visit family, go to school. It shouldn't just be for Metroliner riders - the Wall Street types and politicians."
John Boyers, a 21-year veteran on the railroad, said, "The railroaders at Penn Central didn't think they would ever look around to see weeds and fields on the railroad tracks. We don't have anything more to give up after the last 10-15 years. People didn't think the depression of the 1930s would happen. We should get loud and squawk about this now before it is too late."
Conductor Bailey pointed out, "Maybe we could do like they did in South Africa. The powerful minority could run things there until the majority got organized and put an end to it."
Linda Marcus-Leonard and Ruth Robinett are members of UTU Local 1370 at Amtrak in New York.