(The Indianapolis Star posted the following article by Norm Heikens on its website on December 4.)
INDIANAPOLIS — Six hundred workers at the Amtrak maintenance facility in Beech Grove walked off their jobs Wednesday to protest the national rail service’s hiring of outside contractors to repair rail cars and tracks.
Members of the Transport Workers Union and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes began striking at 6 a.m., and the other 11 unions at the sprawling facility honored the action.
Despite the work stoppage at Amtrak’s largest maintenance facility, the early-morning Indianapolis-to-Chicago train departed on time at 7:05 a.m. and Amtrak officials said national traffic also wouldn’t be affected.
“This is a local issue, and a minor dispute, and has no affect on Amtrak train operations in Indianapolis or anywhere else in the country,” said Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari.
Amtrak plans to seek a temporary restraining order to stop the strike, he said.
The strike is the third high-profile labor dispute to hit Indianapolis in the last two months. A brief strike at Citizens Gas & Coke Utility ended Nov. 12 when workers at the coke plant accepted a 3.5 percent increase in compensation. Negotiations between Kroger and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 700 continue after a federal mediator on Nov. 5 persuaded the union not to strike.
Despite those recent disputes, work stoppages across the country have been on a steady decline since 2000. About 30,000 workers have been involved in work stoppages nationally during the first nine months of this year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. That compares with 324,400 workers during the same period in 2000.
Similar tallies for work stoppages in Indiana were not available.
The Amtrak strike is the latest in a string of labor disputes at the Beech Grove facility. At issue is whether outside contractors have been hired to prevent furloughed workers from returning to their jobs.
Union officials said their unrest began in September when Amtrak brought in a contractor to repair fences around the facility. In early November, a track-maintenance contractor arrived. On Monday, another contractor showed up to repair rail cars, union officials said.
Mike Flowers, assistant general chairman of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes, said Amtrak didn’t file the required notification to bring in outside contractors.
“It’s called slapping us in the face,” Flowers said.
Officials from the two unions leading the strike said furloughed workers should be called back to their jobs if Amtrak needs more people to work at the rail yard.
Magliari said the hiring of outside contractors has not resulted in the furlough of union workers. He said a strike violates the formal process for settling such disputes.