THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 12, 1996 TAG: 9604120642
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Members of the largest railroad union voted to reject a national contract with the nation's railroads even as another union threatened to strike.
The defeat and the strike threat have thrown the current round of rail labor talks into turmoil.
In voting ended Tuesday, members of the United Transportation Union rejected a contract that the railroad industry had hoped would be a model for deals with its 13 other unions. The UTU represents 5,000 of Norfolk Southern Corp.'s 23,600 employees.
Meanwhile, an official with Transportation Communications International Union said Thursday that his union will strike against one or two major railroads in May if an agreement is not reached in the next 30 days. The TCU represents about 2,500 Norfolk Southern employees.
``They are all fair game,'' said TCU international Vice President Joel Parker of the nation's largest railroads.
The UTU, which announced the rejection of the contract Wednesday, did not release the vote tally or any other information about the vote by its 50,000 members.
Union leaders have returned to Washington to resume negotiations with the National Carriers Conference Committee, which negotiates on behalf of the nation's largest railroads. The National Mediation Board, which oversees rail-labor negotiations, also will resume meeting with UTU officials.
``We were surprised and disappointed,'' said a statement released by the National Carriers Conference. ``We believe the agreement was a fair and equitable one that provided an excellent package of wages and benefits to employees.''
Officials at Norfolk-based Norfolk Southern declined to comment.
The TCU's strike threat stems from the National Mediation Board's decision Monday to stop talks between the TCU and the railroads because they had made no progress. The contract with the TCU, which represents mostly clerical workers, expired Nov. 1, 1994.
Under the Railway Labor Act, contracts do not expire. Instead, the existing agreements remain in force until new contracts are reached, whether freely negotiated or imposed by Congress to end a crippling strike.
If negotiations and mediation fail, as they have between the carriers and the TCU, there is a 30-day cooling-off period after which a union may strike.
If a strike occurs, the president can appoint an emergency panel to review the dispute automatically suspending the strike. If a settlement isn't reached in 30 days in cooperation with the panel, the union may strike again.
After that only an act of Congress could force the strikers back to work.
Labor negotiations at railroads and airlines are heavily regulated to prevent severe disruption to the nation's economy by a crippling transportation strike.
Railroad officials are particularly disheartened by the UTU vote because they had hoped the tentative deal would be a pattern for pacts with other unions where agreements have been elusive.
Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers will finish voting April 19 on a similar contract. Norfolk Southern has been negotiating separately with the engineers' union, which represent about 2,900 of its workers.
The UTU deal was unpopular with some other unions, whose officials complained privately that its 3 percent annual wage increases over five years were inadequate. That pact also included innovations such as greater carrier flexibility, which could have prompted members who fear job losses to reject it.
Several sources said four of the six UTU crafts approved the tentative agreement. The UTU crafts are enginemen, conductors, brakemen, yardmasters, hostlers and yardmen. The union's rules require that a contract can be approved only if all of the union's six crafts approve the pact by a majority vote. MEMO: (The Journal of Commerce and Bloomberg Business News contributed to
this report) by CNB