TCU Joins Suit to Stop ARC from Breaking Up Amtrak
May 2, 2006
Quick links+
TCU has joined 10 other AFL-CIO rail unions in filing suit in federal court to block the anti-worker Amtrak Reform Council from sending Congress its final report recommending the break-up of the nation’s passenger rail system.
The lawsuit, filed January 22 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is being coordinated by the Rail Labor Division of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department. The suit responds to ARC plans to recommend to Congress that Amtrak be broken up with routes open to private companies.
Among its points, the suit charges that the council "acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner and contrary to law" by recommending Amtrak’s break up as a national system. By law, the council is required to submit a plan for a "restructured" national passenger rail system, not a plan to shatter that system.
"Congress mandated that the council provide an objective assessment of Amtrak operations but the ARC has followed an ideological agenda to dismember the carrier and sell its parts to private interests," says President Bob Scardelletti. "There is absolutely no question that, as the TTD says, the council is a rogue group wasting taxpayers’ dollars to achieve a result Americans do not want. Have no doubt, we will fight in every forum, including the courts, to protect the rights of Amtrak workers."
###
