Amtrak Agreement Delays Walkout

October 3, 2003

Amtrak Agreement Delays Walkout
Oct. 03, 2003 – A planned walkout by 8,000 of Amtrak’s 21,000 employees today was delayed until Oct. 20, the date of a hearing on the passenger railroad’s motion for a preliminary injunction.

According to CNN.com, members of the unions representing the 8,000 employees had said they would walk off the job today to protest what they called the railroad’s chronic underfunding by the government. The walkout would have threatened to strand more than 750,000 Amtrak and commuter rail passengers around the country and disrupt mail and freight deliveries.

Amtrak had sought a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Charles Moneypenny, director of the railroad division of the Transport Workers Union of America, said the unions don’t want to shut the railroad down. "We’re going to take the next few weeks to furiously lobby Congress and the White House to fix the Amtrak crisis," he said.

To read more, go to CNN.com.