Railroads ordered to rehire 1700 workers

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4 OCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 1986 brOoKlyn. NY 11240-4030 718-8 PORTLAND, Maine-The railroad industry has its eye on developments at three small New England railroads-the Maine Central, the Boston and Maine, and the Delaware and Hudson-which are owned by Guilford Transportation Industries (GTI).

Guilford has served as a test-tube situation for the employers in their drive to dissipate the power of the rail unions in isolated local struggles. They hope to take on and smash the unions company by company, while relying on the courts to prohibit solidarity action on a national scale.

On July 11, unionists won a victory in the courts when U.S. District Court Judge Gene Carter issued a permanent injunction ordering GTI to rehire 1700 workers that BOX 404830 IMPACT 55-2140 ISUALS Affordable photos, cartoons, caricatures and illustrations for the movement and the progressive press the company laid off from its three railroads. The injunction also prevents GTI from laying off any of its employees without court approval.

Judge Carter ruled that the company violated its agreement with the unions when it failed to reinstate the 1700 workers after an order by President Reagan put a halt to the 11-week strike by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) on the Maine Central. The Maine Central strike had spread to the government-operated ConRail system, threatening a shutdown of freight operations in 14 Northeast states.

Carter also ruled that GTI must give back-pay to all affected employees. However, he issued a delay order after Colin Pease, vice president of GTI, cried poor. The payback order will cost Guilford an estimated $10 million to $16 million.

On the same day that Guilford was defeated in Judge Carter's courtroom, however, the company pushed forward with its anti-labor objectives by abolishing all jobs covered by the Sheet Metal Workers Union (SMW) agreement. The SMW members were reclassified as "railroaders," with duties to be assigned by supervisors. Although the new maneuver was thrown from its union-busting schemes. Company spokespeople raised the alarm of a nationwide strike by the BMWE on July 21, when the presidential back-to-work order was due to expire.

Guilford Vice President Pease begged the Congress members to help him and GTI owner Timothy Mellon-heir to the mammoth Mellon banking fortune _"defend" themselves from the "strike threat."

Andrew Malleck, vice president of the BMWE, says Guilford is trying to force a strike and make the union look like the provocateur, in hopes of getting Congress to strengthen the Railway Labor Act to prohibit secondary picketing. GTI wants the Taft-Hartley prohibition on secondary picketing to apply to the railroads, making picketing against rail carriers that handle scab cargo illegal.

BMWE President Ole M. Berg assured the employers that his union "wouldn't strike as long as good-faith negotiations continue."

The Berg leadership is once again willing to put its trust in a company which has repeatedly shown its contempt for the union. But railworkers have the power to defend themselves against the bosses' union-busting attacks. For this, nation -wide solidarity actions by all railworkers a biweekly magazine published under the auspices of the Fourth International. We offer a special introductory offer of three issues for $3. A six-month subscription is $22, and one year of International Viewpoint is available for $42. Subscribe now!

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