UTU News Digest - Friday, February 25, 2000

UTU Daily News Digest

Information of interest to operating railroad and transportation employees

Friday, February 25, 2000

NEBRASKA: U.P. Workers Forced to Return to Jobs

OMAHA -- Track maintenance workers, objecting to the planned closing of a 37-employee assembly plant in Laramie, Wyo., struck Union Pacific Railroad's northern section Thursday morning, but a federal judge ordered them back to work a few hours later, the Omaha World Herald reported.

An estimated 2,400 maintenance workers began a strike at 6 a.m., and unionized employees in other crafts, including engineers, refused to cross the picket lines. U.P.'s 1,700 other union maintenance workers - those from the former Southern Pacific Railroad, who work under a separate collective bargaining agreement - were not included in the strike.

Railroad spokesman Mark Davis said the walkout caused "minimal delay to some trains."

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph A. Batallion in Omaha signed an order about 10:15 a.m. ending the strike. Picket lines were to disperse when copies of the judge's order reached union officials.

The decision bought U.P. time to resolve the dispute; the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees won't be able to walk out legally until it exhausts several steps, including negotiating and cooling-off periods. The maintenance-worker strife comes at a time when Overnite Transportation Co., a Virginia-based trucking unit of the railroad's parent company, is embroiled in a protracted labor dispute with the Teamsters.

Thursday, pickets walked outside Union Pacific Corp.'s headquarters at 15th and Dodge Streets; at the Woodmen of the World building, where workers dispatch crew members; at the Council Bluffs railyard; at the Harriman Dispatching Center at Ninth and Jones Streets; and at other U.P. locations in the Midwest and West.

The maintenance workers involved in the strike work in Omaha, North Platte, Neb., Laramie, Portland, Ore., Los Angeles and other locations that were part of Union Pacific before its 1996 acquisition of Southern Pacific Corp.

At issue, said Jed Dodd, a spokesman in Philadelphia for the maintenance workers, is whether the railroad can shut down the track assembly plant and reassign employees in violation of a long-standing contract, reaffirmed in 1996, that reserves the assembly work for union members.

Dodd said the union called the strike because the railroad was trying to make a change in the contract on its own, rather than by negotiating with the union. "It's an important issue for the people who are losing their jobs, and it's an important issue for the union, whether the collective bargaining agreement will be enforced or not," he said.

"In our opinion, that warranted the shutdown of the Union Pacific Railroad until the issue is resolved."

He said the practice of shifting work to nonunion employees is "endemic in the industry. It's a problem facing our union which we intend to deal with."

The union had been trying to resolve the issue since November, when it first heard about the railroad's plans, he said. Union officers called the strike Thursday because of the railroad's "inscrutable resistance to bargaining," Dodd said.

"We'd like to negotiate," he said. "Union Pacific has refused our calls for negotiations over this issue, and as a result, we had to strike."

He said, though, that the union will abide by the judge's back-to-work order.

U.P.'s Davis said the railroad considers the strike illegal because the union didn't follow the prescribed procedures for settling a contract dispute. The 37 employees will not lose their jobs, he said, but will be reassigned to other work performed by union members.

The railroad hasn't closed the track facility yet. U.P. plans to purchase the 40-foot track sections "off the shelf" from an outside vendor. Union employees would still install the track, he said, and in some cases, they might assemble the track sections at the work site, rather than at the plant.

NEBRASKA: U.S. Railroads, Unions Start Contract Talks

OMAHA -- Negotiations on new contracts have started between unions representing thousands of workers and the nation's major railroads, including Omaha's Union Pacific Railroad, THE Omaha World Herald reported.

For Union Pacific, the talks involve pay and working conditions for most of the company's more than 46,000 employees represented by unions. The railroad has a total work force of 53,000 people.

About 38,000 of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad's 43,000 employees are represented by unions.

David Eden, a spokesman with the United Transportation Union in Cleveland, said the unions filed notices last November proposing changes in the unions' existing contracts, effectively kicking off negotiations.

The National Carriers Conference Committee acts as negotiator for the railroads. Besides U.P. and Burlington Northern, the committee represents Norfolk Southern, Kansas City Southern and CSX Railroads.

The committee will negotiate with most of the approximately 14 unions for the various crafts involved in railroad work.

If history is a guide, the brief strike Thursday by U.P. maintenance workers may be only the beginning of a period of contentiousness between railroads and unions.

Eden said that for his union, the main issue is entry-level pay; the union wants to eliminate the disparity in wages between new hires and veteran workers.

In recent years, when stalemates have occurred in talks, there have been brief work stoppages called by unions. But in each case, intervention by a presidential emergency board or federal judge has halted the action, and settlements have been imposed on both sides.

"It doesn't benefit a rail union to strike," Eden said. "What benefits a union is to sit down and do tough negotiations at the bargaining table to get the best possible contracts."

Right now, Eden's union is getting prepared for what he says may be an historic decision by the National Mediation Board.

The federal panel is expected to decide next Wednesday whether U.P. employees who belong to the United Transportation Union and those represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers can vote to combine the two groups.

The United Transportation Union represents about 14,000 U.P. workers; the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers about 8,000. The UTU, which represents conductors, locomotive engineers, switchmen and other crafts that operate trains, supports the merger. The BLE has been opposed.

WASHINGTON: Amtrak’s Board Chairman Thompson for Passenger Carrier

WASHINGTON, DC -- At an oversight hearing today before the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine, Amtrak’s Chairman of the Board, Gov.

Tommy Thompson testified to the corporation’s progress toward freeing itself from federal operating support, a wire service reported.

The Subcommittee is chaired by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) who co-authored the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997.

Board Chairman Thompson noted that Amtrak surpassed the bottom-line target in its business plan for the second consecutive year in 1999 by $8 million keeping Amtrak on course to become operationally self-sufficient. Powering this achievement last year was total revenue of $1.84 billion, an all-time high. Further, for the first time ever, Amtrak’s ridership increased for a third year in a row. Up 10 percent since it began rebounding, Amtrak’s ridership has reached 21.5 million.

Testified Thompson, If I’m enthusiastic about Amtrak, it’s not because I’m painting some sort of rosy scenario. It’s because we are keeping our commitment to Congress and the American people to run Amtrak like a business and achieve solid financial improvement.

Amtrak’s Chairman of the Board also cited the growing recognition from states that a vibrant passenger rail network must play a stronger role in relieving congestion, combating urban sprawl and spurring economic growth. In 1999, joint capital projects with states reached historic levels, totaling $300 million.

Critical to Amtrak’s business plan success is the continued partnership with 36 states to develop high-speed rail corridors nationwide. Thompson noted that the completion of electrification in New England made it possible to launch Acela Regional service that reduced travel times between Boston and New York by as much 90 minutes. Describing the public’s response as "tremendous," Thompson told the subcommittee ridership has grown more than 25 percent compared to the ridership on the trains Acela Regional replaced.

Later this year, Amtrak will introduce Acela Express, America’s first high-speed service between Boston and Washington, D.C. In addition to growing public sector confidence in Amtrak’s progress, the corporation has entered into partnerships with private sector leaders, such as Norfolk Southern and the BNSF to bolster its mail and express business, and with Hertz and Motorola to improve travel options and customer service. And, based on its expectation that operational self-sufficiency will be achieved, Moody’s Investors Service assigned Amtrak an A3 rating, reflecting a "stable outlook."

In closing, Thompson told the subcommittee, "Yes, there have been obstacles in the track-and no doubt there will be more. And there are also those who will criticize our every move, and do everything in their power to make sure the predictions they’ve been making these past 29 years about our inevitable demise come true. The bottom line, however, is this: Congress and the American people gave us a mandate in 1997. So far, we have lived up to that mandate. We believe we’ve earned the right to your continued support."

WASHINGTON STATE: Boeing, engineers back at table

SEATTLE -- Teams from The Boeing Co. and its top engineering union met for the first time in the 16-day strike yesterday, but the only signs of progress were that they were still talking and trying to improve relations, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported.

Negotiators for the company and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace were holed up at the Sea-Tac DoubleTree Hotel trying to agree on a new contract that would bring roughly 18,000 striking engineers and technical employees back to work.

So far both sides spent more time with federal mediator Richard Barnes than talking to each other. Yet, Barnes said they made "some progress" in building a better relationship between the two sides.

"We have not had a breakthrough," said Barnes, who on Tuesday called the two sides together. "We are very pleased in the progress we have made with the relationship."

Barnes, director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, vowed that the two camps would stay at the hotel through the weekend if it was needed to hammer out an agreement.

"Both sides are committed to being here as long as it takes," Barnes said during an impromptu press conference last night. The mood is very upbeat."

Boeing and its second-largest union are battling over union demands for more guaranteed wage increases, a lump-sum bonus and the protection of existing benefits. The union is also pressing for a vote to require all employees covered by the contract to pay a fee to cover some union expenses.

Only about 64 percent of the 22,000 employees covered by the contract actually pay union dues and belong to the organization. "They do have some wide differences between them," Barnes said.

Both teams spent the day reviewing their positions and exploring new options. However, none of the negotiators would say what those options were. "We have not had any agreement on any of the issues," Barnes said.

Boeing executives have consistently defended the last two contract proposals from the company that union members voted down. One academic expert said the company doesn't want to back down now because it would make it more difficult to deal with the union during future bargaining sessions.

Workers on the picket line have stressed that the walkout is about more than wages or benefits.

They say it is an issue of respect and feeling like they have a significant role in the company's operations and its future. The number of striking workers has surprised both Boeing executives and the union.

Since members walked off the job on Feb. 9, the number of striking workers has hovered between 17,000 and 19,000.

"They have never treated their white-collar workers like a player before," said Kate Bronfenbrenner, the director of labor education and research at Cornell University. "Once you do that . . . you're going to have to keep taking them seriously."

Neither Boeing nor the union was talking to the media as they left the hotel last night and Barnes declined to predict the outcome. "We still have a lot of work to do."

CANADA: Union says members will decide their future in face of U.S. union intimidation

TORONTO -- In a move to intimidate approximately 30,000 Canadian members of the Service Employees International Union, the U.S.-based International SEIU placed eight locals under trusteeship late last night, a wire service reported. But a vote of the Canadian members determining the issue will proceed, union representatives say.

"The International's actions are clearly designed to shut down the democratic process," added Ken Brown, former International Vice-President from Windsor-based Local 210. "We are moving ahead to vote March 2. This is about workers taking charge and determining as Canadians what they want."

This move comes after a decision last Sunday by over 100 elected leadership from the eight locals who unanimously endorsed a move to disaffiliate from the U.S.-based union and join the Canadian Auto Workers. The next day in community meetings across Ontario, the leadership's decision was supported by over 800 local elected representatives from the eight locals. The decision to merge with the CAW ultimately rests with the 30,000 members in votes to be held March 2 in cities and towns across Ontario.

Local leadership supporting the CAW were disappointed by the U.S. union's heavy-handed approach.

Dave Eales, former President of SEIU Local 220 (London) with a membership of 12,000 said, "There is enormous support for joining the CAW amongst my membership. I was hoping the International would show respect and not interfere in our basic right to decide our destiny as Canadians."

"As health care workers, the vast majority of our membership are deeply affected by the Canadian health care crisis," said Laura McWaters, Local 183 from Belleville. We have to be able to respond to the reality in Canada if we are to properly represent our members. The CAW is the right choice for us. The overwhelming response this week has been 'do it now'."

The racetrack sector of the Ontario SEIU membership led by Brett Goodall, Local 528 has watched the CAW gaming sector and his members are supporting the move. "My membership wants the CAW - no more dues going to the U.S."

CAW president Buzz Hargrove said, "Instead of coming down hard, the U.S.-based union must recognize Canadian workers' rights to decide their own future. It's an issue of democracy and the right of workers to belong to the union of their choice."

"Our membership, on hearing of the International's actions is really outraged. They want the CAW," said Michael Phillips, former president of Local 777.