CLEVELAND, November 6 — International President Don M. Hahs said today that the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is surprised over the United Transportation Union’s endorsement of Louis Thompson, a pro-privatization nominee to Amtrak’s Board of Directors.
Of the three men nominated to fill vacancies on Amtrak’s Board, Thompson is perhaps the Bush Administration’s most pro-privatization candidate. He is an economist who serves as the World Bank’s top railway advisor.
“Considering the Bush Administration’s apparent plan to privatize Amtrak, it was expected that the Administration would try to ‘stack the deck’ and fill the vacancies on Amtrak’s Board of Directors with nominees who show the President’s ideology,” President Hahs said. “It was expected, but nonetheless disappointing.”
Thompson has authored 14 publications on the privatization of railways, including titles such as “Best Methods of Railway Restructuring and Privatization,” “The Benefits of Separating Rail Infrastructure from Operation,” and “Reforming and Privatizing Poland’s Road Freight Industry.”
In England, many of Thompson’s theories were put to the test as that country privatized its national rail system. Unfortunately, for British rail workers and passengers, the privatization was not successful.
“The disastrous privatization experience of British Rail provides an important precedent,” according to Columbia University economist Elliot Sclar in “Amtrak Privatization: The Route to Failure.” “There the breakup of the system was followed by serious accidents, financial insolvency, and further public subsidies (even while private investors were provided returns on their participation). Here privatization yielded the worst of both worlds — chronic service failures, no effective market discipline, and wasted public revenues.”
(For more details, see Sclar’s report at the Economic Policy Institute’s website, http://www.epinet.org).
The UTU endorsed the pro-privatization Thompson in an October 30 letter from UTU National Legislative Director James Brunkenhoefer to Senator Conrad Burns.
In its letter of endorsement, the UTU cites Thompson’s extensive background on railroad issues, dating back to 1970 when he served as one of Amtrak’s creators.
“While it may be true that Thompson has a significant background in the railroad industry, the entire focus of his career has been privatization,” President Hahs said.
Amtrak has 23,000 employees, and its dismantling and/or privatization would create widespread job losses for railroad workers and could potentially cripple the Railroad Retirement system.
“Given the fact that all of Rail Labor would suffer under the privatization of Amtrak, one must ask why any Rail Labor organization would endorse a candidate for Amtrak’s Board of Directors who has such a strong pro-privatization background,” President Hahs said. “Nevertheless, this is exactly what the UTU has done.”
A copy of the UTU’s letter endorsing Thompson is available on the BLE website at:
http://www.ble.org/pr/pdf/utu.pdf