ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997 TAG: 9704280070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN LEVIN THE ROANOKE TIMES
Railroads need trained inspectors in new places Monday. Those transferred might be able to return, but have no guarantee.
Norfolk Southern Corp. said Friday that it will transfer 85 workers from its local shops, telling 62 of them their jobs will leave Roanoke.
The action was announced late Friday. The railroad said the Federal Railroad Administration is forcing immediate action to comply with new safety rules.
This will slow car rebodying, one of the chief activities in the company's Roanoke shops, said Frank Brown, spokesman at Norfolk Southern headquarters in Norfolk.
A total of 108 Norfolk Southern mechanical workers are affected. Of the 85 from the Roanoke car shops, 17 will go to the locomotive shops and six to the transportation department, also in Roanoke. The other 62 will go to other NS operations outside of Roanoke.
Employees in Decatur, Ill., and Knoxville, Tenn., also will be transferred.
Norfolk Southern and other major U.S. railroads have petitioned the federal regulators to reconsider the new rules, meaning the moves could be temporary, Brown said.
Under labor agreements between the company and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen, workers with seniority could move back to jobs in Roanoke when there are openings.
Officials of that union's local could not be reached Friday night.
``We're telling people, `You're not being sent to the ends of the Earth with no chance of returning,''' Brown said.
However, workers notified of the change were told to consider the moves immediate and permanent, because there is no guarantee when or how the federal agency will consider the railroads' petitions, he said.
The change came in what Brown called a technical bulletin issued by the FRA concerning inspection of air brakes and other safety equipment on rail cars and trains.
Because the new rules take effect Monday, the railroad must transfer workers already trained to make the inspections rather than teach others how to do them, Brown said.
Workers affected by the change will be told Monday where in Norfolk Southern's multistate system they will go.
``The jobs they'll go to have higher rates of pay,'' Brown said. He declined to give dollar figures.
``We've got to do this,'' Brown said. ``It's a business decision. We have to comply with FRA guidelines. If we don't, we'd disrupt commerce.''
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