DATE: Thursday, September 4, 1997           TAG: 9709040464
SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   32 lines

TRAIN DISPATCHERS' WALKOUT BLOCKED

A Greenville, S.C., federal judge blocked a walkout by Norfolk Southern train dispatchers hours after it started Wednesday, a railroad official said.

U.S. District Court Judge G. Ross Anderson Jr. issued a temporary restraining order requiring about 100 dispatchers to return to their jobs, said Norfolk Southern Corp. spokesman Robert Fort.

The dispatchers, represented by the American Train Dispatchers Association, walked off the job 11 a.m. Wednesday at five dispatching centers in the southern part of the railroad's 14,000-mile network.

Fort said the dispatchers were protesting a disciplinary action. Under the labor contract with the union, the issue should have gone to arbitration, but instead the dispatchers staged what the Norfolk-based railroad is calling an illegal work stoppage, he said.

Representatives of the dispatchers could not be reached for comment. Details on the disciplinary action were not available.

Dispatchers control the movement of trains on rail lines.

Fort said the walkout caused minimal disruption, though some trains had to stop on main lines. Train service was to have returned to normal by today, Fort said.

Dispatchers walked off the job in Atlanta; Birmingham, Ala.; Greenville, S.C.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Somerset, Ky., Fort said. No other parts of Norfolk Southern's system were affected.

The judge will hold a hearing Monday to determine whether to issue a preliminary injunction under the Railway Labor Act barring the dispatchers from any further work stoppages.

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