Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 16, 1991 TAG: 9104160618
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: DANIEL HOWES BUSINESS WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"I've got the official order that we will be striking," said John LaManca, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, Division of the Transportation-Communications Union. "The men I represent . . . are not only resigned to it, they want to go out."
Several area union leaders, who did not want to be identified, said their strike plans called for a walkout at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Officially, the strike could begin seconds after 12:01 a.m., when an extended "cooling-off" period between 11 labor unions and the nation's freight carriers will expire.
"The guys are ready to do whatever the union calls come Wednesday," said Bill Forren, a brakeman for Norfolk Southern Corp. and member of the United Transportation Union.
Clad in stonewashed overalls and a UTU hat, Forren - a "strike captain" - left union offices in downtown Roanoke on Monday with an armful of black-and-white strike signs and his strike committee list. His job: to phone the members of his committee the minute a strike is called and to see that they get to the picket lines.
But it may be over before it begins, union officials said. A strike captain who called the UTU offices and said he'd been telling his men that a strike would begin in the first minutes of Thursday was told: "The strike'll happen Wednesday, not Thursday. We'll be back to work before you know it."
Officials with the unions and the carriers predict the strike will be over quickly because Congress, fearful that a work stoppage would deepen the recession, will step in and order the unions back to work. Unions hope that order will be accompanied by the appointment of a new presidential emergency board charged with reviewing the 3-year-old dispute.
Some 235,000 union rail workers - 24,200 of them Norfolk Southern employees - have been working without a new contract for more than three years and have not had a pay raise since Jan. 1, 1988. Contract talks have stalemated over wages, work rules and health care issues.
Bargainers continued negotiations through much of Monday evening, but both sides thought they were so far apart on the key issues - mainly wages and other financial issues - that there was little reason to hope a strike would be averted.
"It remains unlikely that agreements will be reached with each of the unions before the deadline," said Charles Hopkins, chief negotiator for the major freight carriers, such as the Burlington Northern, Conrail and Norfolk Southern.
If a nationwide strike occurs, it is expected to immediately choke the flow of one-third of the nation's goods and idle as many as 550,000 other American workers who depend on train-delivered goods to complete their jobs.
A freight strike, for instance, could have a dramatic impact on auto workers who rely on parts transported in from other regions, potentially shutting down some assembly plants.
Meanwhile, union members dismissed Norfolk Southern's announcement last week that it would shut down in the face of a strike.
"You may see 'em shut down, but it won't be for long," said Alan Saunders, a conductor with UTU Local 363. "You'll see supervisors running the trains."
"You can't believe what they say: They said they were going to close down on Christmas, and they called people all day Christmas," said Mickey Wentzel, a member of UTU Local 559.
A shutdown would last "for a day or two," said Dan Anderson, general chairman of System Council 6 of the International Brotherhood of Firemen and Oilers. "They may kick back up, depending on what happens in Congress. The last time they operated in a strike, their supervisors tore up a lot of equipment."
And there were more supervisors. Since the 1982 strike, Norfolk Southern's work force has shrunk from 40,000 to 30,000, said Robert Auman, a company spokesman. "It's no secret we had 1,000 people take early retirement in the fall of 1987 and we had more than 200 take early retirement at the end of 1990," he said.
"They would be considered non-union personnel. They are the workers who have in the past been given strike-duty assignments," Auman continued. Heightened concern for safety and the dwindling supply of supervisors qualified to run trains contributed to the company decision to shut down, he suggested. Some supervisors still received strike assignments.
Further, the south coal dumper at Lamberts Point in Norfolk has been out of service since April 10 while technicians weld two new units together for a "tandem rotary dumper," Auman said. Because of the previously scheduled renovation, which should be finished by April 28, the company can only load about half as much coal as usual.
But union leaders are suspicious, suggesting that the timing of the repair dovetails almost too conveniently with the nationwide labor dispute. "My official position is they most definitely will run trains, especially once they get the coal piers fixed," said L.P. King Jr., general chairman of the UTU's conductors' committee.
Although Norfolk Southern supervisors ran trains during strikes in 1978 and 1982, rail officials say it is not surprising that major carriers appear to have decided not to repeat the effort. But the net effect, union officials say, is to pressure Congress and the Bush administration into a settlement more favorable to the rail carriers.
"It's my feeling . . . with the political atmosphere that Congress will, tomorrow, probably do something," said LaManca of the Carmen. "They'll either appoint a new board or legislate us an agreement."
Bush, in remarks Monday, stopped short of indicating that he would ask Congress to intervene and head off the strike. "It is always better for labor and management to resolve their differences and produce an agreement," he said.
The president called the dispute "a situation which affects the entire country" and said it "could severely disrupt the economy just as the economy, in our view, is trying to turn around and get out of this recession."
With Transportation Secretary Samuel Skinner at his side, Bush told the Association of General Contractors: "The rail industry is absolutely critical and it is critically important to the United States economy, moving more than a third of all goods shipped in the United States."
The president clearly was seeking to exert pressure on both sides to head off the strike. Later, representatives of the railroad unions gathered at the Transportation Department for a private 90-minute meeting with Skinner.
Congress has authority to stop a rail strike through emergency legislation. But congressional leaders have indicated they will wait until the parties have exhausted all avenues at the bargaining table before imposing a settlement through legislation.
Three of the 11 unions involved have reached tentative settlement with the carriers, but the eight others - including the one representing train operators - are yet to settle.
The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
by CNB