Nat'l rail strike looms as workers tire of delays, company tricks

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A TRAIL OF BROKEN HELP "SOLIDARITY NOW!! ROLLING Railworkers are tired of delays and trickery around negotiations.

and ART LE CLAIR After over three years of fruitless negotiations, unions representing more than 200,000 railroad workers have set an April 17 deadline for a nationwide walkout if a new contract is not agreed to before that date.

Contract talks became stalled last year when negotiators for the major freight carriers refused to discuss anything until the issue of a "more acceptable and cost effective healthcare plan" was resolved. The carriers want rail workers to pay at least 25 percent of the costs of their medical plan. Members of the involved rail unions have had a fully paid health plan since 1955. They say they are unwilling to give it up.

The dispute was submitted to a Presidential Emergency Board under the provisions of the National Railway Labor Act (NRLA). The board's subsequent report, including recommendations for resolving the logjam, have been declared totally unacceptable by all the unions.

Included in the Presidential Emergency Board's recommendations are lump-sum payments instead of wage increases and agreement with the health-insurance premium co-payments sought by the carriers.

Endless series of delays April 17 marks the end of a 60-day extension of a 30-day cooling-off period. The mutually agreed-to extension was the result of the war in the Persian Gulf. This "cooling-off" period is part of the endless series of delays in the collective bargaining process established under the NRLA.

The purported purpose of these built-in delays, is to protect the railroads from preventable strike actions and to protect rail workers from being locked out prematurely by the carrier. In reality, these mechanisms are designed to prevent unions from conducting timely and effective job actions to pressure the railroads into bargaining in good faith.

Not only that, the delaying action allows the carriers to engage in a war of attrition with rail workers. The railroads are more Bill Regan is president of Local 987, Brotherhood of Maintenance and Way Employees. Art Le Clair is vice president of Local 791, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. than confident that they can hold out longer than the workers and their families.

The rail carriers have mastered this strategy over the years. It has become an accepted fact that once a labor contract expires, it will be at least three to four years before a new one can be "negotiated." This is also the case in the airline industry, where workers are also forced to live under the terms of the Railway Labor Act.

The fact of the matter is that the carriers don't really have to negotiate at all. They only go through the motions, drag their feet, utilize the delaying mechanisms of the NRLA, and when a "crisis" (strike) occurs, they let Congress implement its own settlement.

This usually amounts to enacting into law the recommendations of the Presidential Emergency Board. It is no coincidence that the findings of any such board are generally favorable to the railroads.

Given organized labor's miserable track record over the last decade, it would be understandable if rail workers hesitated to use the strike weapon. But that is not what is taking place!

Railworkers say, "Enough!"

One 33-year veteran locomotive engineer states, "I don't know what's going to happen if something isn't done soon. People are KEEP AMERICA mad as hell. I've never seen anything like this in all the years I've been working."

He went on to say, "At this point, I don't even care anymore. I say they either give us a decent contract or we strike them. If we lose, we lose. But it sure beats the hell out of laying down for them."

An assistant conductor with 10 months' service chimed in, "I agree. Maybe I've got less at stake than the others because I've only been here since June, and I gotta tell you, I never thought I'd ever make this kind of money, but everybody is mad. People are disgusted. How much bullshit do they expect us to take?"

Although rail workers sometimes feel that they are in the back waters of the labor movement, many have paid close attention to developments in recent years. People still talk about the show of solidarity in the lengthy Guilford strike, in which all the craft unions stuck together. (Guilford Transportation Industries operated the Maine Central, Boston and Maine, and Delaware and Hudson Railroads).

Perhaps the most significant lesson was learned during the machinists' strike against Eastern Airlines. One provision of the Railway Labor Act allows for the use of secondary boycotts. The machinists at Eastern considered taking advantage of the vague language in the Act and shut down and down the East Coast.

Two years ago, at the beginning of the Eastern strike, a special meeting was held in Boston. Representatives of all the rail unions talked with leaders of the Eastern strike about the situation. The machinists came to ask for cooperation and support if and when they made their move to shutdown Amtrak.

The response was overwhelming. Immediately, plans were drawn up to effectively shut everything down. Contingency plans were developed to aid the workers in defeating Amtrak's known desire to derail the strikers at Eastern. As soon as an Eastern mechanic showed up with a picket sign, Amtrak would have gone down.

When news of the meeting spread through the shops, one apprentice jumped up onto a work table and shouted, "People are pissedoff and ready to rock n' roll. Get ready, Mr. Claytor!" (W. Graham Claytor is the president and CEO of Amtrak.)

"Don't ask for permission"

Unfortunately, the machinists' union sought legal guidance as to the legitimacy of their shutting down railroads under the secondary boycott aspect of the NRLAinstead of just doing it. They were then derailed when a temporary injunction was issued to prevent them from carrying out their threat.

Afterward, Bill Connolly, chief shop steward of Local 1726 at Eastern Airlines in Boston, spoke about the outcome: "You know, some supporters had told us, don't ask permission, just do it. Set up your picket lines and let the chips fall where they may. Well, they were right. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't hesitate. I'd shut them down, from Maine to Miami!"

Although not a party to the current national negotiations, Amtrak is at pretty much the same point as the freight carriers. Management has continued to make offers that are so ridiculous that no one can possibly accept them-or they make no offers at all.

At the local level, the bosses have stepped up petty harassment campaigns against union members and their representatives. They laugh when asked about their failure to comply with standing labor agreements.

In Boston, an organization made up of officials and rank-and-file activists has been formed in response to the arrogant behavior of company officials. Amtrak Workers United (AWU) has been able to bring together representatives from all 16 unions on the property.

AWU is now solidifying relations with officials on Amtrak's North Side Commuter Rail operation, formerly run by Guilford. As a strike is likely to hit Amtrak sometime after the national strike begins, closing ranks with these brothers and sisters is invaluable.

dollar—the enormous cost of potential law-