Railroad Industry Labor Relations

Travelers started to feel the pinch of an impending nationwide railroad strike as Amtrak on Monday canceled long-distance train service, shunted passengers to buses and prepared to halt operations altogether. Commuter and freight traffic could stop at 9:01 tonight, the end of a 30-day, congressionally mandated cooling-off period, unless the railroads and unions can settle three contract conflicts.

With the nation's freight railroad system paralyzed and Amtrak's long distance passenger service crippled, Congress moved cautiously Wednesday to deal with the shutdown, despite a demand from President Bush for immediate action to restore train service. The Bush Administration warned that economic losses from the freight line strike and lockout would amount to $1 billion a day, while the Assn.

Congress and the White House moved with rare speed Thursday night to end a crippling two-day nationwide rail shutdown that already had begun to threaten the economy by forcing layoffs at coal mines and auto assembly plants. The House and Senate passed emergency legislation barring strikes and lockouts by large margins, setting up a "last, best offer" arbitration system to resolve the three major union-management disputes that had idled virtually all U.S. railroads.

With the nation's freight railroad system paralyzed and Amtrak's long-distance passenger service crippled, Congress moved cautiously Wednesday to deal with the shutdown, despite a demand from President Bush for immediate action to restore train service. The Bush Administration warned that economic losses from the freight line strike and lockout would amount to $1 billion a day, while the Assn.

British tourists Lucy Pembrey and Clare Topliss didn't get much of a welcome to Los Angeles when they stepped off their train Wednesday at Union Station. They got the word that they had reached the end of the line--at least until an East Coast machinists' union strike is settled and Amtrak passenger train service resumes.

Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said Friday that the Bush Administration is prepared to seek emergency legislation early next week to avoid a national railroad strike that threatens to shut down the nation's freight network and sidetrack economic recovery. Meanwhile, major rail shippers, taking no chances, searched for alternate forms of transportation and took other steps to minimize disruptions.

President Bush is upholding three arbitrators' decisions in the railway labor disputes that triggered a nationwide rail shutdown in June, the White House said Monday. The arbitration grew out of a strike in June by the International Assn. of Machinists against a regional railway that touched off a lockout by major rail lines that effectively halted the nation's rail system.

Sheri Inloes stood on the Amtrak platform in Oxnard, her bags packed and ticket in hand. The only thing missing was the train. Scores of other commuters, business travelers and tourists made the same sad discovery at train stations in California as an on-again-off-again nationwide rail strike-lockout started early Wednesday, shutting down all but one passenger service in the state.

Peeling off into car-pools, buses or motoring alone, Orange County commuters came through the first day of the nationwide rail strike Wednesday unscathed--almost. Consider the case of two attorneys with the state attorney general's office and an employee with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Instead of hopping on the train as usual, the three were forced to car-pool from north Orange County--a commute that took four times as long by freeway as by Amtrak.