
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 13, 1991                   TAG: 9104130326
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. SET TO INTERVENE IF RAIL STRIKE OCCURS

The Bush administration said Friday that if a nationwide rail strike looks imminent next week, it will ask Congress for emergency legislation to head it off.

"There is no good reason for a crippling nationwide rail disruption, and this administration is committed to avoiding it," said Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner.

Rail unions representing most of the nation's 235,000 freight line workers have vowed to strike at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, if a 3-year-old dispute over wages and health care isn't settled with the carriers, which include all of the nation's big freight lines such as Burlington Northern, Conrail, CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Though the dispute involves the nation's freight system, passenger lines could be disrupted, too, because freight carriers own most of the tracks passenger trains run on.

The National Mediation Board on Friday called the parties to Washington for last-ditch bargaining sessions, but neither side was hopeful that settlements with all 11 unions involved could be reached by the Wednesday deadline. - Associated Press

by CNB