The Nation : Northeast Rail Strike Set

Union officials representing 2,000 Amtrak engineers said that they planned to shut down inter-city passenger service and disrupt commuter rail lines in the Northeast with a strike Monday morning. Some commuter rail lines in the Midwest and West could also be faced with walkouts, union officials meeting in Trenton, N.J., said. But Arthur Lloyd, an Amtrak spokesman in San Francisco, said the strike “may or may not affect trains in the West, we don’t know.” Union engineers on the West Coast work for individual railroads rather than for Amtrak. A spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers said skilled employees are trailing the unskilled in wages.