(The following article by Laurence Arnold was distributed by the Associated Press on December 11.)
WASHINGTON — A federal judge rejected Amtrak’s request to block a threatened one-day walkout by railroad unions to protest what they say is chronic underfunding of passenger rail.
Unions representing 8,000 of Amtrak’s 21,000 employees had planned the work stoppage for Oct. 3 but agreed to postpone any action until the court ruled.
Though the unions can proceed, they have not said whether or when they will do so. The stalemate over federal funding they hoped to address with their one-day protest has been broken, at least for this year.
Calls to leaders of the two unions organizing the walkout were not immediately returned.
The Transportation Communications Union, which represents about half of Amtrak’s unionized employees. has previously said it wouldn’t participate in a stoppage.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, in his ruling issued Wednesday and posted Thursday, denied Amtrak’s request for an injunction. The passenger railroad failed to prove that the union was planning an “unlawful act,” the judge wrote.
Amtrak already has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, railway spokesman Cliff Black said. Amtrak claims the railroad has a legal and public service obligation to provide intercity passenger rail service every day.
Black said a walkout would do more harm than good. He noted that last month, while the court case was pending, congressional and White House bargainers agreed to give Amtrak more than $1.2 billion for the federal budget year that began Oct. 1, a $180 million increase from the previous year.
Amtrak had requested $1.8 billion, but Black said $1.2 billion is enough to keep the railroad chugging another year.
“The motivation for a strike is moot,” Black said.
Black said a one-day walkout would likely shut down Amtrak’s nationwide system and undermine the railroad’s support in Congress.