The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.37           October 27, 1997 
 
 
Support The Amtrak Workers  
 The entire labor movement needs to get behind the 2,300 Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) members who are preparing for a possible strike against Amtrak. The workers who build and maintain the tracks, buildings, bridges, and electrical systems for the national passenger railway have gone two years without a general pay raise - an experience all too familiar to workers in many industries. Their demand is that Amtrak agree to wages and other contract terms on par with those reached last year between the BMWE and other major railroads. As a number of workers and even some union officials point out, it's not the union's concern how the company will resolve its alleged operating deficit. That's the bosses' and the government's problem.

In response to this just fight, the rail barons and other capitalists are already trying to whip up panic among middle- class commuters and others over the possibility of a rail strike. With dire warnings about chaos along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, New Jersey governor Christine Whitman has been publicly urging the White House and Congress to take "extra steps to resolve the situation." This echoes Amtrak management's appeal to Congress to "prepare to take appropriate action to avoid disruption of service which could cripple Amtrak operations." In other words, outlaw any strike action.

In fact the Clinton administration has already intervened in the dispute, invoking the Railway Labor Act August 21 to prohibit the BMWE from striking for 60 days and impose a "presidential emergency board." Such government-appointed bodies are not neutral. Aside from a small wage raise, this board proposed sending all other issues to binding arbitration - which is the bosses' terrain.

A strong show of working-class solidarity for the BMWE members is needed to win broader support for the rail workers' fight and counter the calculated hysteria Whitman and other cheerleaders of the employers are promoting as the strike deadline approaches. At the same time, the labor movement needs to demand that Washington keep its hands off the union, vigorously opposing the use of any antistrike legislation.

We urge our readers to get out to rail yards leading up to the October 22 deadline, to offer solidarity to the BMWE workers, learn about their fight, and bring the facts and lessons of other working-class struggles reported in the Militant and recorded in Pathfinder books to rail workers who are preparing to resist Amtrak's austerity demands.  
 
 
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