(The following article by Sean Wood was posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on March 3.)
FORT WORTH — About 200 Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. dispatchers walked off the job for almost three hours Wednesday afternoon, tangling commuter rail service in Chicago and rail operations in the Pacific Northwest.
Dispatchers left their offices at the company’s operations center on Western Center Boulevard in north Fort Worth for about two hours and 45 minutes according to a company spokesman. They returned to work about 6:15 p.m.
The walkout was over a dispute concerning personal leave, according to BNSF spokesman Dick Russack.
Russack said that “qualified nonunion employees” filled in to try to minimize delays.
The walkout was “illegal,” Russack said. It violates the union’s agreement with the Fort Worth-based rail company, he said. The company could take legal action against the union, he said. Russack did not say, however, whether that was forthcoming.
The dispatchers are represented by the American Train Dispatchers Association. Union representatives did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Russack said he does not expect any walkouts by the dispatchers who work two other shifts.
In Chicago, hundreds of evening commuters were stranded at the downtown Union Station as the walkout delayed service for up to an hour on the Metra commuter train route between Chicago and Aurora, Ill.
Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said Burlington Northern operates 12 tracks at Union Station, and about 30,000 people take the affected line during the evening rush hour.
“It’s a mess. It’s so disorganized,” said Cathy Parinella, 49, who was trying to catch a train to the Chicago suburb of Naperville.
In the Northwest, about half of rail traffic was affected by the strike, BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said.
The walkout delayed the evening Sounder commuter train service between Seattle and Tacoma, Wash. Buses were provided for commuters, Sound Transit spokesman Lee Somerstein said.
The union and Fort Worth-based Burlington Northern ratified a contract in September, according to the company’s Web site.
Burlington Northern’s rail subsidiary operates 32,000 miles of track in 28 states and two Canadian provinces.
BNSF shares (ticker: BNI) closed down 33 cents Wednesday, to $51.12.