(The following story by Uriah A. Kiser appeared on the News & Messenger website on May 12, 2010.)
MANASSAS, Va. — Despite reports they had, unions representing Virginia Railway Express train workers have not reached an agreement with the company taking over operations June 28.
Without the agreements, questions have come up about who Keolis Rail Services of America – the company that will take reigns from Amtrak – will hire to operate the trains.
VRE said last month agreements had been reached with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and the United Transportation Union, representing VRE’s conductors, which covered such things as working conditions, hours and wages.
That’s not true, said UTU spokesman Frank Wilner.
“I think that it was an incorrect statement made by someone who has not been sitting at the negotiation table,” said Wilner. “We are always optimistic that an agreement will be reached and that we will be able to move forward.”
VRE announced the agreements prior to a nationwide recruitment effort Keolis mounted in late April. VRE confirmed one Amtrak employee has agreed to work for Keolis.
Keolis did not return requests for comment on this story.
After hiring their train maintenance staff almost immediately after they signed an $85.7 million, five-year contract with VRE last fall, Keolis still needs 45 employees to operate the trains, said VRE spokesman Mark Roeber.
Workers have expressed concern that without the union agreements, VRE could be trying to shed its unions.
“We’ve seen this kind of thing before, where a company that owns several thousand miles of track decides to sell a small portion of the track to a new company and operate without a union,” said John Bentley, a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.
While he said there is no specific evidence that is happening here, employees at a non-union Keolis take the chance of not having similar wages and benefits they have earned, and wouldn’t have the flexibility of working on other unionized rail operations, Bentley added.
VRE says Keolis presented their plans for working conditions, benefits, hours and wages to both current unions, both approved of Keolis’ plan and wanted to join in.
“The unions know that no one can have signed agreements without 50 percent, plus [one employee] of the Amtrak employees agreeing to work for Keolis, and so far that hasn’t happened,” said Roeber.
Once Keolis completes it’s hiring process, it will then be up to the individual unions to sell themselves to the employees.
Who ends up working for Keolis may already be on the list.
On Friday, VRE submitted a list of more than 60 potential hires to Amtrak, in hopes they would certify which ones do not have a problematic past with Amtrak, and who would still be allowed to work on Amtrak property – such as Union Station, said Roeber.
Amtrak responded Monday, demanding Keolis provide forms each with the potential employee’s signature on them, allowing Amtrak to release their personal information.
“We are very protective of our employee’s privacy rights,” said Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm. “And, if the employees want to move over…VRE is reporting they only have one employee to move over. I think that says something.”
VRE with their new contract expects to save $1.2 million with Keolis, which has never operated rail services in the U.S. It has an option for two five-year renewals.
It marks the first time that Amtrak has not been contracted to operate VRE since the commuter service began in 1992.