AFL-CIO transportation leader tells senate to support, not weaken, Amtrak

(The TTD issued the following news release on June 5.)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Calling on Congress and the Bush Administration to make a long-term investment in Amtrak rather than dismantle it through “bureaucratic shell games” and flawed privatization schemes, Sonny Hall, President of the AFL-CIO s Transportation Trades Department, today told a Senate panel that Amtrak should receive at least $1.8 billion in federal funding for Fiscal Year 2004.

Testifying before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Hall said, “our nation must make a serious and long-term financial commitment to Amtrak. We must recognize that Amtrak is a public service — just like highways, transit, and other infrastructure — that should serve the public’s transportation needs and not be driven by profit motives.” He stated that federal highway spending is 43 times greater than rail, aviation 20 times higher, and transit 8 times as much.

Hall, who as International President of the Transport Workers Union represents thousands of Amtrak’s 23,000 workers, said employees have sacrificed for years to keep the trains running, to the point where their wages have fallen approximately 20 percent below those in freight and commuter rail. Hall said that “transportation labor will insist that the jobs and livelihoods of Amtrak employees are not ignored or cast aside and that new collective bargaining agreements are completed without further delay.” He said the labor movement would oppose any Amtrak financing legislation that “turns its back on Amtrak workers.”

In his testimony, Hall strongly supported a study released earlier this week by the Economic Policy Institute, Amtrak Privatization: The Route to Failure, which rejects proposals — similar to those advanced by the Bush Administration — to restructure and privatize Amtrak. Instead, it calls for substantially greater public investment in Amtrak to improve the quality and breadth of service. The study — available at www.epinet.org — examines the1994-1996 privatization of British rail which led to rampant delays, increased accident rates, and higher fares. Hall said that not only has the British government reversed course and re-nationalized passenger rail, but that the leaders of the political party responsible for privatizing the trains have promised that if it were to get back into power it would not do it again.

For a copy the testimony, visit www.ttd.org

TTD represents 35 member unions in the aviation, rail, transit, trucking, highway, longshore, maritime and related industries. For more information, visit www.ttd.org