(The Transportation Trades Dept., AFL-CIO, circulated the following news release on December 13.)
WASHINGTON — Momentum is growing to stop a rail industry plan to suppress rail workers from speaking out on critical issues of working conditions, safety, and pay, Edward Wytkind, President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department said today.
The latest development was 120 U.S. Representatives jointly writing the National Mediation Board (NMB) in opposition to the agency’s plan that, according to Wytkind, uses a “pale ruse of new ‘filing fees,'” to stifle employee complaints about unsafe and unfair conduct by the railroads. The changes, which are being advanced by Bush appointees to the NMB, would apply only to workers, not to management. The NMB oversees labor-management relations in the rail and airline industries.
“Rail workers owe a debt of gratitude to Representatives Jim Oberstar and Corrine Brown and 118 other lawmakers for opposing a plan that demonstrates how out of touch the NMB is on this issue,” Wytkind said. “With all the safety and security challenges facing the railroads, it is both illogical and dangerous to make it harder for front-line workers to speak up and hold management accountable.”
Senators Arlen Specter, Tom Harkin, and Edward Kennedy, all senior members of congressional panels overseeing the NMB, have also sent letters in opposition to this proposal. In the recent Omnibus appropriations bill, Congress directed the NMB to hold hearings to, “examine any potential negative impact of the proposed fees.”
“This growing momentum on Capitol Hill is shining a light on the fact that government officials are doing the bidding of the giant railroad companies,” Wytkind said. “America’s rail workers won’t back down in this fight for fairness.”