House Passes Bill to Halt Train Strike

Congress moved with rare speed Thursday night to send freight and passenger train workers back to work immediately, as a two-day shutdown of the nation’s rail system began to trigger layoffs at coal mines and auto assembly plants that threatened the budding economic recovery.

A bipartisan majority in the House approved a novel “last, best offer” arbitration procedure to resolve the three major union-management disputes that had idled virtually all U.S. railroads. The measure immediately went to the Senate, where swift approval was expected so the legislation could be rushed to President Bush for his signature.

Overriding strong objections from opponents who claimed that the measure was anti-labor, the House voted 248 to 140 for the bill.

Under the congressional formula, rail workers will return to their jobs while the disputes are arbitrated within the next 38 days.

With elections less than six months away, members of Congress at first approached the task of intervening in the strike gingerly, but the prospect that a continued rail stoppage could pull down other industries and send damaging shock waves through the nation’s economy just as it seems to be emerging from a long recession apparently spurred action Thursday.

The formula approved Thursday night differed sharply from a request by the President to impose a settlement based on recommendations of White House emergency boards. Those settlements had been accepted by the railroads but rejected by the rail unions as inadequate.

Proponents of the legislation said that it was more evenhanded and would encourage both sides to continue bargaining toward a settlement but provide a binding solution if they could not reach agreement.

The shutdown began shortly after midnight Wednesday when the International Assn. of Machinists struck the CSX Corp., one of the nation’s largest freight lines. Declaring that a strike against one railroad was a strike against all of them, virtually all of the nation’s 40 freight railroads halted their operations, leading to charges of an illegal lockout by the unions.

The action has stopped all freight traffic across the country and severely disrupted most passenger service. The White House has estimated that it is costing the nation $1 billion a day.

“Clearly the national interest is at stake here,” Bush said during a meeting with Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. “I urge the House and Senate to act to end this strike today. There must be no further delay.”

Although the initial strike involved only freight lines, Amtrak service was disrupted in areas--such as Southern California--where passenger lines share common track with freight lines. Amtrak had hoped that it would be spared when the three major unions with which it was negotiating announced late Tuesday night that they would extend their strike deadline 48 hours.

On Thursday, Amtrak trains were still running between Washington and Boston on tracks it owns, but long-distance trains on lines owned by freight railroads were not running. Some commuter lines have also been halted.

Also on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Harold Greene denied a union request for an order that would have forced 40 freight railroads to call back locked-out union workers. Greene said the unions had failed to show that their members would be irreparably harmed by the lockout.

Meanwhile, the strike’s effects rippled through the nation’s basic industries, beginning with the closure of coal mines before hitting General Motors Corp. GM slashed work schedules at five assembly plants Thursday and announced the indefinite closure of three of the plants starting today.

Light-truck plants in Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Shreveport, La., ran short of sheet metal that normally arrives by rail from plants in Flint, Mich., and Indianapolis, a GM spokeswoman said. The plants, which together build about 1,400 trucks daily and employ 4,600, probably will not reopen until the railroad shutdown ends.

Similarly, a parts shortage shortened both work shifts at GM’s minivan plant in North Tarrytown, N.Y., which will be closed today. It is among the assembly plants GM plans to close permanently in 1995.

The 4,000 employees in Wilmington, Del., who make the Chevrolet Corsica and Beretta, and another 5,300 in Oklahoma City who make the Buick Century and Oldsmobile Ciera, also worked a short day Thursday.

GM said that it hopes to keep the Wilmington and Oklahoma City plants operating today but warned that most of its 28 U.S. car and truck assembly sites will “face serious production interruptions if the rail situation is not resolved quickly.”

Chrysler Corp. officials said that they hope to keep all their plants running through today but that shutdowns will spread quickly if the rail disruption continues into next week.

The rest of the auto makers--Ford Motor Co. and the seven Japanese companies with U.S. assembly operations--are in the middle of vacation shutdowns or are expected to begin such closings Monday. All said that they have stockpiled enough components to ride out at least a weeklong strike.

As predicted, the coal industry was hit hard and fast. Railroads deliver about two-thirds of the coal that is shipped in this country.

No industry-wide figures were available Thursday. But Island Creek Coal Co. in Lexington, Ky., the nation’s 15th largest coal producer, said that the interruption of rail service is already costing it $2 million a day in lost revenues.

“We are not shipping coal,” said Jerry McPhee, Island Creek’s government relations director. “The prospects of a continued strike in this industry are disastrous.”

He said that three of Island Creek’s 20 mines closed almost immediately and the rest will quickly follow.

The coal industry’s chief customers, electric utilities and steel producers, said that they have stockpiled enough coal to last for days or weeks. The Inland Steel Co. of Chicago said that it is more likely to suffer from the problems of its customers, especially the auto industry, than from a shortage of raw materials.

Fruits and vegetables that California farmers ship to markets across the United States will soon become scarce and expensive if the shutdown lasts more than a few days, industry officials said.

The peak harvest for California’s 200-plus crops comes in July and August, but the strike immediately affects oranges, potatoes, carrots and lettuce, said Mike Henry of the California Farm Bureau.

If the arbitration system is approved by Congress, it would work this way:

Within three days after passage, the railroads and rail unions each would nominate a single arbitrator. Within the next three days, those two would select a third arbitrator who would help the parties with negotiations toward a settlement in the three disputes covered by the legislation.

If no agreement is reached after 20 days, each side would have five days to submit its last, best contract proposal and negotiations would continue for another seven days.

If there is no agreement at that time, the lone arbitrator would have three days to decide which of the final contract proposals would take effect. The proposed contract would be submitted to the President, who would have three days to decide whether to veto it.

If the President rejected it, the labor unions would be free to strike and the railroads would be free to lock out their employees or change hours and working conditions as they please.

At any time during the process, voluntary agreements would take precedence over the terms of the legislation.

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