(The Boston Globe posted the following story by Mac Daniel on its website on April 24.)
BOSTON — Amtrak is in danger of losing a huge number of its Boston-based employees over the next several months, leaving service and safety gaps in its South Station lines, a union leader warned yesterday.
Transport Workers Union official Charlie Moneypenny blamed the possible mass exodus on the MBTA’s new commuter rail operation, which is offering Amtrak workers their first raises in nearly four years.
When Amtrak lost the contract to run the MBTA’s commuter rail service, it was expected to lose most of the 1,600 workers who ran that service. Moneypenny says hundreds more may move, too, jeopardizing Amtrak service on the Northeast corridor.
”It is likely that there will be a sizable number of workers leaving traditional and perhaps even high-speed rail service to go to work for the new carrier,” Moneypenny wrote to Amtrak’s vice president for labor relations earlier this month.
Amtrak officials yesterday called the statement ”speculative” and said few senior Amtrak workers would be willing to risk losing valuable seniority by changing jobs.
”If they wanted to come back to Amtrak, they’d have to start with a clean slate, at the bottom of the pile,” said Amtrak spokesman Clifford Black. ”We feel comfortable that we will retain enough of these dedicated employees to operate our service.”
Amtrak has run the MBTA’s commuter rail operation since 1987, but late last year the T awarded a new five-year contract to a consortium called the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad.
Amtrak officials refused to bid on the $1.07 billion contract, calling it unprofitable.
Contract terms from the Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad, which takes over July 1, have yet to be made official but include a better employment package than what Amtrak provides, Moneypenny said.
Unionized Amtrak employees have been without a contract since 1999 and have not had a general wage increase in 3 1/2 years, Moneypenny said. The two sides are currently in negotiations.
At the same time, Moneypenny said the current number of brakemen in Amtrak’s Boston shop is down 20 percent, and union representatives have said everyone wants to know when they can make the switch to the new operator.
Amtrak has 1,600 employees under the T contract, plus 1,050 employees working in Boston for Amtrak-only runs.
A spokeswoman for the commuter rail operator said yesterday that it expects to hire all of Amtrak’s commuter rail workers. The company has not been flooded with requests from other Amtrak employees, according to spokeswoman Tara G. Frier.