Amtrak may go on strike for the first time.
Sunday, January 20th, 2008Amtrak employees have worked without a contract for eight years and have received only cost-of-living pay increases since 2000. A presidential panel created to avert a strike last week recommended that workers receive a 35 percent raise through 2009 and millions of dollars in additional back pay for the years worked without increases. The unions were pleased by the report, but Amtrak would need support in Congress to pay the increases.
The unions’ right to strike begins at 12:01 a.m. Jan. 30. Amtrak has never had a strike.
The unions said a strike is one of three possibilities, including a negotiated settlement with congressional intervention. “Amtrak’s concern has always been the railroad’s ability to make pay increases retroactive and to achieve efficiencies through work rule reform,” Cliff Black, an Amtrak spokesman, said in a written statement.
Commuter rail services on East Coast depend on Amtrak to operate. Amtrak owns or operates most of the routes between Washington, D.C. and Boston.
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