Amtrak workers finally get contracts

Fifteen thousand Amtrak workers are ratifying contracts after being stonewalled by management for eight years. Represented by a dozen unions, these railroad workers have been without agreements since Jan. 1, 2000. Management manipulated the Railroad Labor Act as an excuse not to bargain.

Bosses wanted to eliminate thousands of jobs by outsourcing. Those fired would have included 750 coach cleaners and 1,000 reservation clerks. Amtrak’s management sought to pull out of the railroad retirement system, threatening its solvency. They refused to consider back pay.

Even Bush’s handpicked Presidential Emergency Board found that management refused to negotiate in good faith. Surprisingly, they agreed to most of the union demands.

Wage increases will average about 35 percent over the life of these 10-year contracts that cover the period from Jan. 1, 2000, to Dec. 31, 2009. Workers will get 40 percent of their back pay—minus deductions for health insurance—a couple months after ratification.

But getting the remaining 60 percent depends upon Congress appropriating the money. This $114 million is about what Bush spends during five hours of occupying Iraq. Any filibuster in Congress or Bush’s veto of our money should be answered by a labor holiday.

The Emergency Board did a rotten thing by limiting back pay to only those who were on the job as of Dec. 1, 2007. Workers who retired before then will get nothing.

One of these retired workers was 65-year-old Gary Graves. He was struck and killed by an Acela train on March 13 just north of the Providence, R.I., station while working for a private contractor.