(The following article by Don Phillips and Carol D. Leonnig was posted on the Washington Post website on December 12.)
WASHINGTON — Thousands of Amtrak employees are legally entitled to walk off the job for one day during the heavily traveled holiday season to protest President Bush’s and Congress’s lack of support for passenger rail service, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
However, Amtrak spokesman Clifford Black said Amtrak attorneys had filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and would ask the court for an emergency stay if the unions set a date for the walkout. And a spokesman for the unions said no decision had been made whether a date would be set.
The unions “have not reached any conclusion on what they will do — what or whether,” said Richard Edelman, a lawyer with O’Donnell, Schwartz and Anderson who represents the unions.
Edelman said the unions felt they had won a significant victory with the ruling itself. “We are vindicated on the legal issues,” he said. “We have the right to protest.”
The unions arguing for the one-day strike are the Transport Workers Union of America, Service Employees International Union’s National Council of Firemen and Oilers, and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union.
Those unions represent 8,000, or about 40 percent, of Amtrak’s unionized employees.
Several fellow AFL-CIO unions oppose a walkout, however, and the non-AFL-CIO United Transportation Union, the largest rail union, is adamantly opposed.