Santa Fe Workers’ Strike Cancels 2 California Trains

Thousands of Santa Fe railroad workers from Los Angeles to Chicago abandoned the train tracks for the picket lines Saturday in a strike that forced the cancellation of two California passenger trains.

The walkout by engineers, brakemen, firemen and switchmen was called to protest the trial run of new freight equipment that can operate with fewer crew members.

In California, the heavily traveled Amtrak commuter line between Los Angeles and San Diego was “at this point unaffected,” Santa Fe spokesman Mike Martin said Saturday night.

However, the walkout did force cancellation of the daily Los Angeles-to-Chicago “Southwest Chief.” Many passengers holding tickets had been notified by phone, an Amtrak official said, but about 50 showed up at Union Station expecting to board the train. They were bused to a hotel for the night while alternate travel plans were made.

The strike halted departures of the “San Joaquin Flyer,” which runs between Bakersfield and Oakland.

Amtrak trains operating with Union Pacific and Southern Pacific facilities and crews were not affected.

Fresh Fruits, Vegetables Affected

Sue Metcalf, a Chicago-based spokeswoman for the Atchison-Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co., said the strike also would affect Santa Fe’s container shipments of fresh fruits and vegetables bound for the East Coast.

In addition, striking employees walked off the job at the container services at the Oakland and Long Beach ports, affecting boat cargo shipments in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles.

Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and United Transportation Union were first to walk off the job. They were joined by members of other unions, including electricians and machinists.

Freight traffic constitutes perhaps 98% of Santa Fe’s train business and Martin said company officials hope that at least two-thirds of the freight trains could be run by supervisory personnel. Santa Fe has 12,000 miles of lines in 13 states, from Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico and across the Southwest.

At issue is the “RoadRailer,” a high-speed truck-trailer unit equipped with hydraulically operated wheels that can be adapted to railroad tracks, “a piggyback train without the flatcar,” said Martin.

The first such trial got under way Saturday morning, a trip with 34 trailers from Chicago to the General Motors assembly plant in Van Nuys. Within hours of the train’s departure, the strike was called.

In Chicago, Santa Fe President John Swartz said in a statement: “In today’s competitive transportation environment, it is essential that we find ways to provide the service desired by our customers at a competitive price if we are to remain a viable transportation company.” He called the strike “unfortunate and short-sighted.”

The RoadRailer “offers an opportunity to retain traffic being lost to trucks and perhaps gain new traffic,” he said.

‘Gross Violation’

But Paul Thompson, vice president for the Cleveland-based United Transportation Union, said of the management move: “This is the most gross violation of an agreement, as well as provisions of federal law, that I have ever encountered in 20 years of work with this organization,” he said.

The sticking point for the unions is the fact that the train can be staffed with as few as two crew members changed at eight different points, instead of three or four crew members that union agreements require be changed at 16 points between Chicago and Los Angeles.

“This would have destroyed the usefulness of the test, as stopping to change crews affects schedules and fuel consumption,” said Swartz.

No pickets were in evidence at Union Station at 8:10 p.m. when the Chicago-bound “Southwest Chief” was scheduled to depart.

Passenger Incensed

Catherine Watson of Boston, who had been visiting relatives on a 10-day vacation, fumed as she boarded the bus to the hotel. “I have jury duty on Monday and I’m going to miss it. I’m going to write my senator, my congressman and a whole lot of people. . . .”

Cathy Brewer, 36, of San Jose, had been headed for Colorado on the train, and worried about how to reach relatives waiting for her there. “This is my first train trip and I don’t know what to make of it. I won’t stop taking Amtrak but my parents are pretty upset.”

Indeed, her mother, Mrs. Laurence Pararu, said: “I don’t understand what’s going on. We take Amtrak all the time. This really spoils the trip.”