(The following report appeared on the Indianapolis Star website on December 3.)
INDIANAPOLIS — Two unions upset by the use of outside contractors went on strike this morning at Amtrak’s Beech Grove maintenance shops.
Union leaders claimed all 540 workers at the shops were honoring the picket lines that went up at 6 a.m.
Contractors are being used to repair passenger cars and perform track maintenance, union leaders said. Amtrak should call back laid-off union workers to do those jobs, they add.
On Monday, a contractor brought in 18 workers to remove mold in passenger cars, said Bill Keglar, president of the Transport Workers Union, Local 203.
The contract workers are not using protective masks and other safety equipment, Keglar charged.
Another private contractor brought in five workers to maintain train tracks at the shops, said Mike Flowers, assistant general chairman of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes. That’s the job of the 20 members in his union, Flowers said.
“It’s called slapping us in the face,” Flowers said.
Under federal law, the railroad can get a court order ending the strike after one day. But since the strike at the maintenance yard is not affecting freight or passenger traffic, the job action could go on longer, Flowers said.
Amtrak officials in Beech Grove referred all questions to the railroad offices in Chicago.
Each week, workers at the Beech Grove yard overhaul a diesel locomotive and refurbish 17 train cars. Workers earning $16- to $20-an-hour labor in turn-of-the-century buildings on a 106-acre site.