Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 5, 1990 TAG: 9005050113
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Rising health care costs had been a major holdup in contract negotiations, which had been going on for two years. Nearly 300,000 trackmen, engineers, signalmen and other railroad workers at about 15 of the nation's largest freight railroads are affected.
The appointment of the board was not unexpected and had been agreed to earlier by the railroads, the unions and the White House.
Bush's move was hailed by organized labor as a sign that the administration is concerned about workers' medical coverage. A few months ago, Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole appointed a commission to study health care costs within the coal industry, a key issue in last year's bitter Pittston strike.
The Presidential Emergency Board in the railroad dispute will come into existence on Saturday, presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said in a statement.
"The creation of this board . . . is necessary to forestall the possibility of a crippling nationwide rail strike," Fitzwater said.
He noted the National Mediation Board has concluded the situation is "extremely critical."
Bush was criticized by labor leaders last year when he declined to appoint an emergency board in the strike by machinists at Eastern Airlines. That was the first time, to the Mediation Board's knowledge, a president had failed to act once the board notified him of a potential emergency within the transportation industry.
Bush created the board under the presidential authority in the Railway Labor Act.
Named to chair the board, a source said, was Robert O. Harris, a former chairman of the National Mediation Board and currently an arbitrator and adjunct professor at the Washington College of Law at American University.
Administration officials said the railroad impasse is different from the airline strike. Both sides in the railroad dispute were seeking White House help, they said, but Texas Air Corp., Eastern's parent company, did not want an emergency board named in that dispute.
In addition, the Eastern walkout disrupted only a portion of the airline industry while a railroad strike would affect the entire nation.
Bush's action blocks the possibility of an imminent rail strike, effectively imposing a 60-day cooling-off period on management and labor.
The panel has 30 days to make its report to the president. There is then an additional 30-day period during which neither side can take any action. The unions have also pledged not to strike if Congress was not in session, even if the cooling off period had expired.
The time limits are those provided under the terms of the Railway Labor Act. In an earlier agreement, however, the unions and the railroads said the board will have until Sept. 15 to make recommendations for settling the labor dispute.
Dick Kilroy, chairman of the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations, which represents the 11 unions, said health care costs in the railroad industry have been rising between 15 percent and 20 percent a year, and were expected to continue on that path for another five years.
"It's an issue that really doesn't belong on the bargaining table," Kilroy said.
Rex Hardesty, a spokesman for the AFL-CIO, called Bush's action "very encouraging" because, with Pittston, it was "the second recognition of the overwhelming problem."
The emergency board will report on key health and welfare issues first, while the parties continue mediated bargaining on wages and work rules.
After making recommendations on health care, the board will turn its attention to wages and work rules if those matters have not already been settled.
Fitzwater's statement said the railroad labor dispute "threatens substantially to interrupt interstate commerce to a degree such as to deprive various sections of the country of essential transportation service."
"The Department of Transportation has advised that the railroads move over one-third of all intercity freight traffic, which involves goods valued at more than $1 billion each day," the statement said.
A rail strike, besides idling railroad workers and stranding riders, could cause more than 500,000 layoffs within two weeks in industries served by railroads, the White House said.
"The direct costs of a strike could be at least $16 million per day, and the indirect economic costs could be much higher," the White House said.
Deputy White House press secretary Stephen Hart said Bush, in Oklahoma to give the commencement speech at Oklahoma State University, was expected to name members of the panel later Friday.
Staff writer Greg Edwards contributed to this report.
A8 A5 BOARD Board
by CNB