Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 14, 1991 TAG: 9104140172
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I've had a 60-cents-an-hour increase since 1983," Abbatello said. "And that's everything."
Abbatello, 30, plans to marry soon and would like to buy a house. But the future seems so uncertain. He's afraid a new contract might force him to travel all over the Norfolk Southern system - from the Atlantic Coast to Buffalo, N.Y. and Detroit, or out to Kansas City or down to New Orleans - to keep working.
With three days left before an extended "cooling off" period expires between rail unions and the nation's carriers, some 250 Roanoke Valley union members rallied Saturday to support their rail brethren. Later, rail workers met with Olin, D-Roanoke, in Vinton, where Abbatello and others asked for their congressman's help.
The anger and distrust were palpable. Abbatello's union, the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, steadfastly opposes proposed new "seniority rules" that would have members traveling across the railroad's system - instead of one-fifth of it - often at the employees' expense.
His comrades in the United Transportation Union fear the nation's major rail carriers are determined to break a 1984 agreement that they would not try to reduce the size of train crews without union permission.
The more than 150 union members who turned out for the meeting with Olin at William Byrd High School were worried about their eroding wages, job security and threats to their health care. Rail workers have been working under terms of the old contract and haven't seen a wage increase since Jan. 1, 1988, union leaders say.
Railroads, for their part, say many union workers are overpaid, many trains are overstaffed, and that some work rules undermine competitiveness and efficiency. Carriers have called for pay cuts for some workers and cost-sharing for health care.
The ranks of rail workers have shrunk from 1.6 million in the 1960s to 275,000 today, said Houston Kitts, Virginia legislative director for the UTU. "If that's not concessions, brothers and sisters, what is it?" he said before introducing Olin. "We've given until we can't give any more."
Norfolk Southern's announcement last week that it would cease rail operations in the event of a strike has raised the suspicion of many union members. Saturday, they accused the company of trying to stage a rail crisis and manipulate Congress into imposing an unacceptable strike settlement.
A presidential emergency board was named last year to study union and rail company concerns, after nearly two years of talks stalemated. Unions called the resulting recommendations "totally devastating," and carriers criticized the proposals for not going far enough.
Olin, who agreed last week to meet with the union members, left the meeting claiming clearer understanding of union concerns and predicting that Congress would intervene should a strike begin anytime after the 12:01 a.m. Wednesday deadline.
"There's no way to tell you what the action might be," Olin told the union members in the school auditorium. "The [House Energy and Commerce] committee. . . could suggest that a review be made of the whole subject. They could ask for a new board."
Member after member encouraged Olin to stand up for the rail unions. They wondered how he could influence his congressional colleagues, if he could influence them, or how the labor dispute would be handled this week by the power brokers in Washington.
"The Congress," Olin said, "should not be the one who negotiates your labor agreement."
Still, union leaders predicted again Saturday that Congress would intervene quickly and then, they hoped, order the rank-and-file back to work with instructions that a new board be appointed. "I don't think we will get the opportunity to put the picket signs up," King said.
King and others said repeatedly that they wanted to avert a strike, hopefully with a last-minute agreement. Barring that, they want a new presidential board to restudy the dispute and then issue new recommendations.
Earlier, scores of union workers from across Southwest Virginia turned out for a "Workers' Solidarity Rally" in Roanoke's Elmwood Park, despite rain and a biting April wind.
Rally speakers pointed to what they called "a resurgence of the labor movement in Roanoke," and criticized the widespread use of non-union labor on several downtown construction projects.
"They say the unions are dead in America," boomed Dan Anderson, general chairman of System Council 6 of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. "When the unions die, that's when we're going to eulogize the American dream. We're not going to die."
by CNB