DATE: Friday, September 5, 1997             TAG: 9709050657

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER DINSMORE, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   60 lines

RAIL LABOR LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN IN OPPOSITION TO CONRAIL SPLIT

After holding its collective tongue for months, rail labor is lining up in opposition to Norfolk Southern and CSX's plan to split Conrail between them.

Meeting in Roanoke, state and local rail union officials kicked off what they're calling a ``grass roots campaign'' to rally opposition to the takeover of Conrail.

Norfolk Southern Corp. and CSX Corp. agreed in March to split Conrail Inc. in a $10.2 billion deal. The proposed break-up of Philadelphia-based Conrail and its northeastern rail network is being reviewed by the federal Surface Transportation Board. The transportation board will review comments from labor, shippers and others affected by the deal before making its decision by next June.

``We oppose this transaction because it destroys jobs,'' said Edward Wytkind, executive director of the AFL-CIO's Transportation Trades Department. ``We're going to do everything we can to mobilize the communities, including our members, and the shippers and businesses that will be adversely affected by this transaction.''

The meeting in Roanoke was the first of many the AFL-CIO has planned for coming weeks. ``Today is the first salvo,'' Wytkind said Thursday.

Similar gatherings will be held today in Philadelphia and Charlestown, W.Va., he said.

Norfolk Southern and CSX have said their takeover of Conrail will eliminate about 2,600 jobs, but Wytkind called that figure ``grossly underestimated.''

It doesn't take into account job losses due to required relocations of jobs and possible sales of rail lines, Wytkind said.

The railroads, however are telling a different story.

``Their characterization of our transaction is 180 degress removed from reality,'' said Norfolk Southern spokesman Robert Fort. ``This is a growth transaction. It's pro-business, it's pro-jobs, it's pro-safety.''

The majority of the jobs the railroads say they would eliminate come out of Conrail's headquarters and support staffs, not out of operations.

The railroads contend that the takeover will generate new business, which in turn could lead to job growth. That could reverse a decades-long decline in railroad employment.

The industry's employment has fallen from 600,000 in the 1970s to about 200,000 today as railroads achieved greater efficiency through mergers and took other steps to improve productivity.

The railroads have said they wouldn't be paying as much for Conrail as they are if they didn't expect growth.

The rail labor unions likely face an uphill battle to block the merger, which is widely expected to gain federal approval.

In past rail mergers, the federal transportation board has paid little attention to union concerns, said Robert Banks, president of R.L. Banks & Associates, a Washington-base rail consulting firm.

``In a nutshell, I don't think this is going to get very far,'' Banks said. ``There was a time when (the unions) were extremely effective, but that time has passed.''

The 13 rail labor unions are trying to overcome their disadvantages by presenting a united front on the merger under the auspices of the AFL-CIO.

Rail labor unions have been less effective in part because merging railroads have succeeded in dividing them by cutting deals with one or more of the unions to get their approval for the merger.

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