Senators oppose Amtrak outsourcing

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Senators oppose Amtrak outsourcing

WASHINGTON -- America's national railroad should not have its jobs outsourced to foreign countries, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on Thursday, (July 6).

Amtrak's senior management recently informed Byrd and Murray that the railroad's board of directors, all appointed by the Bush administration, will invite private vendors to take over major parts of its national reservation system, including vendors based overseas.

"After having to fight to keep Amtrak alive in the face of budgets that would have put the railroad into bankruptcy, now we are fighting to keep Amtrak's jobs here in the United States," the Senators explained. "Amtrak is America's railroad. It is funded in part with American tax dollars. Its jobs should be American jobs."

Byrd and Murray on Thursday (July 6) wrote to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta and David M. Laney, chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors, to protest the outsourcing plan and to urge the railroad to step away from its efforts to take jobs out of the United States. The letter was also sent to U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta along with the other members of the Amtrak board.

If the railroad does not reverse its plans, the senators pledged to offer an amendment to the Amtrak funding legislation that would block the overseas outsourcing plan.

Byrd is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Murray is the leading Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Both will have a major role in moving the federal transportation funding bill, including operating funds for Amtrak, through the appropriations committee later this month.

"We believe it is wrong to use taxpayer dollars to ship Amtrak jobs overseas and put American workers on the unemployment line. This policy insults American taxpayers who expect their elected and appointed leaders to strengthen rather than erode the economic security of hard-working American families," the senators wrote to Mineta and Laney.

"Amtrak service relies on subsidies that are derived from the taxes paid by all Americans. As such, you and all the other members that President Bush has appointed to the Amtrak board have an obligation to expend these funds in a manner that reflects the values of American taxpayers. We believe that the vast majority of taxpayers would agree with us that it is wrong-headed and inappropriate to use their tax dollars to ship jobs overseas -- especially jobs necessary to operate our national passenger railroad," Byrd and Murray wrote.

(The preceding HuntingtonNews.net article was taken from a release issued by Sen. Robert C. Byrd and Sen. Patty Murray on Saturday, July 8, 2006.)

July 10, 2006

 

[Save Our Trains Michigan]

Amtrak plan outsources jobs

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- A spokesman for the union that represents them said a proposal by Amtrak to move reservation and sales jobs overseas would affect part-time workers in Riverside first, according to this report by Jonathan Shikes published by The Press-Enterprise.

That's because the railway's contract with the Transportation Communications International Union allows it to cut part-time jobs as long as those employees are offered full-time work, said Jack Dinsdale, assistant general chairman for the union.

"A lot of them are parents, mothers who can't be away from their family all day long, or who are going to school or taking care of their own parents," Dinsdale said. That means they would likely have to quit, allowing Amtrak to outsource their jobs, he said.

Of the 588 employees at Amtrak's Western Reservation Sales Office, at 7920 Lindbergh Drive in the Orangecrest neighborhood, 191 are part-time.

Eventually, as more employees move on or retire, the railway could transfer the rest of the jobs to an outside company or to overseas, Dinsdale said.

"We haven't received official notification, but we are expecting it," said Dinsdale, who holds union meetings every two months to keep employees aware of what is going on. "The writing is on the wall. They want to get rid of organized labor."

Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black said no reservations agents would lose their jobs if the government-subsidized passenger railway follows through with its outsourcing plan, but he wouldn't give any more specific information or comment on the details.

"Amtrak is continually looking for ways to improve its financial performance and has an obligation to review all options," he said, reading from a statement.

Earlier this year, Amtrak revealed it was considering contracting out maintenance, on-board food service and call-center operations as a way to save money.

Amtrak, which is seeking $1.6 billion from the government this year, has been under fire from President Bush and Republican lawmakers, who would like cut funding for the organization or make it operate as a private entity.

On Thursday, a week after Amtrak officials briefed a U.S. Senate subcommittee on its plan, Democratic senators Robert Byrd, of West Virginia, and Patty Murray, of Washington, wrote a letter to Amtrak, criticizing the proposal.

"We believe that the vast majority of taxpayers would agree with us that it is wrong-headed and inappropriate to use their tax dollars to ship jobs overseas," it said.

A fact sheet provided by Murray's office shows the railway's employee cost at 87 cents for each minute an employee talks to a customer. Contracting these jobs to a domestic third party would reduce the cost to 55 cents, while sending them overseas would cut it to 25 cents.

Although Amtrak pointed out that the union could submit a competing bid, a cost comparison shows "current employees don't stand a chance," the senators said in a letter to the railroad.

If Amtrak hasn't "renounced" the overseas portion of its plan by the time its budget request goes before the full Senate later this month, the two senators vowed to amend the request to prevent the railway from sending jobs overseas.

(The preceding report by Jonathan Shikes was published by The Press-Enterprise on Saturday, July 8, 2006.)

July 10, 2006

 

[yarrow]

thanks but this same stuff and more is in the "overseas julie?" thread

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

I don't see why the government shouldn't outsource some back-office stuff, though I doubt it'll get rid of the graft

 

[Dutchrailnut]

Nobody uses my Tax money to keep some Indian in Curry.

My Taxpayer money is earmarked to keep American projects going.

If a private industry wants to outsourse fine its their choice, If Govenment wants to outsourse its my choice and the voting box will reflect it.

 

[Guest]

Amtrak lover and hater: What graft are you talking about?

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

Google search "pork barrel spending" for a better explanation.

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

Nobody uses my Tax money to keep some Indian in Curry.My Taxpayer money is earmarked to keep American projects going.

If a private industry wants to outsourse fine its their choice, If Govenment wants to outsourse its my choice and the voting box will reflect it.

you might want to write your congressman in that case, because the feds are spending over $10billion a year on outsourced projects and that number is increasing by 10+ percent a year. i think paying someone $1 an hour to do the same job as paying someone here $15/hour plus full benefits (and union protections!) makes good business sense. amtrak needs to trim the fat in order to compete, and i'd rather have an amtrak with a foreigner taking reservations instead of no amtrak at all.

 

[frj1983]

i think paying someone $1 an hour to do the same job as paying someone here $15/hour plus full benefits (and union protections!) makes good business sense.  amtrak needs to trim the fat in order to compete, and i'd rather have an amtrak with a foreigner taking reservations instead of no amtrak at all.

I don't know how much Amtrak can cut in this area, but a few years ago, the Chicago Reservation Office was axed and 20 or so people lost their jobs...amazingly enough when my company began a new Member Service Center, we hired a dozen of these former Amtrak reservation Staff because they were polite and well-trained and are now valuable staff here.

I would have no problem with outsourcing, if I could understand the people I am talkng with. But on two recent occasions, I had to speak with people in India for help with a computer software program and the PC itself. I talked slowly and tried to explain the problem, but both people I spoke with were incredibly difficult to understand and I eventually had to give up.

That is not good customer service, either.

I believe David Gunn made a start in cutting the levels of Upper and Middle Management at Amtrak. Maybe some more cutting needs to be done there?

 

[AmtrakWPK]

Amen to the trimming managers idea. Amtrak has such an incredibly top-heavy organizational structure, with such a ridiculously high ratio of managers and planners and civil engineers and administrators versus the folks who actually do the work. If they want to trim labor costs, management is where it needs trimmed, big time. Gunn apparently got a good start at it. Maybe that's one of the reasons they fired him. If he had been allowed to continue at it, Amtrak's financial picture would have looked much better, and we certainly don't dare let that happen.

 

[Dutchrailnut]

Paying a foreigner a wage of $3 per hour and putting an American out of work and on welfare cost a lot more to taxpayer.

Yes you save $14 per hour on the job but pay XXXX amount in welfare.

The person getting another job you say great but somehere down the line it affects us all.

Maybe after all work is tranfered to other countries and America is a 3th world nation people will wake up.

 

[AmtrakLoverAndHater]

Paying a foreigner a wage of $3 per hour and putting an American out of work and on welfare cost a lot more to taxpayer. Yes you save $14 per hour on the job but pay XXXX amount in welfare.

The person getting another job you say great but somehere down the line it affects us all.

Maybe after all work is tranfered to other countries and America is a 3th world nation people will wake up.

First of all, as noted earlier, if the folks are good at their job, they will have no trouble finding good employment elsewhere.

Second of all, you actually end up saving about $24/hour because of benefits, holidays, favorable work rules, and so on.

 

[RailFanNebraska]

Amtrak jobs are AMERICAN JOBS !!! God i hope they dont screw up amtraks great custom help line.

ohhh this make me mad :angry:

 

[AmtrakWPK]

And every dollar you pay the indian is forever lost to the USA. Pay it to a U.S. resident, and that person then uses it to pay for goods or services he or she buys in the U.S., which is then used by THOSE people to buy other goods and services in the U.S., etc., etc.. Each dollar spent on a U.S.-based employee effectively is multiplied many times. And it does NOT end up worsening the already awful U.S. balance of trade deficit. My vote is that the U.S. govt should NEVER outsource a tax-money-funded job to outside the U.S., PERIOD.

 

[RailFanNebraska]

this is off topic, but i think the government needs to put a ban on further outsourceing by any us corp. There would have to be some exemptions ... i would imagine.

If not a total ban, there needs to be something to slow it down. Like, you can only outsource so many workers.