STB'S Linda Morgan earns UTU endorsement

STB’s Linda Morgan earns UTU endorsement for
stand before Senate on changing "cram-down" law

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 6) – Surface Transportation Board (STB) Chairman Linda J. Morgan’s bold testimony before a Senate Subcommittee considering her re-appointment here last week has earned her the full support of North America’s largest rail and transportation union.

United Transportation Union (UTU) International President Charles L. Little said today that Morgan’s support of legislation to end the much-maligned practice of "cram-down" during railroad mergers "nailed down" the UTU’s total support for her remaining at the STB.

"Chairman Morgan is the kind of tough, fair-minded and smart chairman rail labor and the American people need at the STB," said Little. "She said that the current law that permits cram-down during rail mergers is unfair and should be changed. During the recent mega-railroad mergers, she made the carriers agree to many conditions that benefited UTU members and rail labor as a whole. We ask our friends in the Senate to keep her in office."

Morgan testified last week before the Senate Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee considering her re-appointment by President Clinton. She said she believed current law that affects how labor contracts are treated during railroad mergers should be changed. New law should be enacted, she testified, that will not allow carriers to make merger-related changes in collectively bargained labor agreements, or "cram-downs."

The STB has said it is bound by a 1991 Supreme Court ruling and earlier precedents, and that is why Morgan said the law should be changed. However, Morgan has used her position as STB chairman to get the carriers in recent mergers to agree to various labor protections.

On Thursday, just two days after her testimony, the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee voted to send Morgan’s re-nomination to the full Senate. No date has been set for the full Senate to take up Morgan's appointment.

Assistant President Byron A. Boyd, Jr., said, "Linda Morgan has done more to protect rail labor during tough mergers conducted under unfair laws than any other person in government. She has earned the right to keep doing her job, and inside-the-Beltway politics as well as petty labor politics should not get in the way of doing the right thing. We need Linda Morgan’s guts and experience at the STB."

Rail labor has been pressing to win senators' support for legislative changes that would prevent the STB from altering negotiated labor contracts during a merger proceeding. Morgan’s testimony reinforces rail labor’s goal at a time when the railroads oppose any changes in labor policy.