Last week, the council, which includes members represented by Transport Workers Union of America, UNITE-HERE, and the Transportation Communications Union/International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, held a protest in front of Amtrak headquarters in the nation’s capital. Union members were criticized the railroad for its recent cuts to dining car service and demanded a sit down meeting with President and CEO Richard Anderson.
Anderson briefly spoke to union officials during the July 18 “press conference” and suggested the labor representatives set up a meeting with other railroad executives. But union bosses tell Trains News Wire that is not enough. Donald Boyd of UNITE-HERE Local 43 says the union coalition plans to “turn up the heat” on the current Amtrak administration until they get a sit down meeting with Anderson and are currently planning similar events in Chicago and New York, he says.
Amtrak officials saw the exchange in Washington between Anderson and the union officials differently. In a statement to Trains News Wire, Amtrak spokesperson Christina Leeds says, “Richard Anderson had a chance to briefly speak to employees and labor representatives during their assembly outside our office building. He looks forward to working with them as we upgrade the quality of our food and create a more contemporary style of service on some of our long distance trains.”
Earlier this summer, Amtrak replaced traditional dining car service on the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited with pre-boxed lunches marketed as “contemporary and fresh dining choices.” Amtrak officials say the cold lunches “cater to the needs of a new generation of travelers, improving efficiency and costs.”
The change has eliminated some jobs for on-board service employees, but Amtrak officials are quick to note that the employees impacted by the change have been able to find new positions within the company.
But union officials say that statement does not offer a full picture of how employees have been impacted. John Feltz, a vice president for the TWU, and Amy Griffin, president of TWU Local 416 and an Amtrak service attendant for more than 30 years, say the changes have upended some employees’ lives. Feltz says in one instance, an Amtrak chef who previously worked on the East Coast now has to work out of New Orleans, meaning he is spending more time away from his family getting to and from his assignment.
“Anderson says that no one is going to lose their jobs but he’s 100 percent wrong about that,” Feltz says.
“These are not just jobs,” Griffin says. “They are eliminating people’s careers. These are people who have served Amtrak anywhere from one year to 40 years.”
Feltz says he’s particularly frustrated because Amtrak management gave the union little warning of the impending change. Feltz says Amtrak officials informed the union in mid-April that they were considering a change to on board service. Union officials said they wanted to get the feedback of members before the railroad announced the change, but within hours the company had gone forward with its plan to replace hot meals with boxed-meals.
Since the change, Amtrak has announced that they are adding one hot meal to the Capitol and Lake Shore menus, but Griffin says it’s a far cry from what was offered in the past.
“These are not the hot meals passengers are used to,” she says. “These are microwaved.”
Griffin and Feltz say they worry that the plan to do away with traditional dining service on two of the East Coast’s long distance train is the first step in an effort to eliminate more amenities aboard Amtrak’s long-distance trains.
“They’re trying to run this railroad like an airline,” Feltz says in a reference to Anderson’s previous job as CEO of Delta Airlines.
Charles Landy, you wanna bet that EPA doesn’t make it’s own policies. Congress long ago started giving agencies the power to do whatever they damn well pleased. Dennis Schauer, you had to throw in that insult of President Trump. This is not the place for that.
Roger Cohen, I remember the last trip I made on SP’s Coast Daylight. The four car plain Jane train included a vending machine car with hot canned soup and pasta, cold sandwiches, sodas, and coffee. There were a couple tables with toasters for something or other. The windows were dirty and the trip interminable. And yes, that wonderful arrangement finished off SP’s passenger services.
I can’t recall the exact quote about necessity making strange bedfellows, but in this case it applies. Do to problems my father had some years ago, I am generally not a fan of unions. However, I am a fan of freshly cooked hot meals, and the company of fellow travelers, when I travel for many hours. Amtrak’s offerings have never been of the quality presented by the Santa Fe or the NYC, but they were prepared on board and fresh for the most part. In this case, I am with the unions. Good luck guys!
“Contemporary and fresh dining choices” , just repeating it over and over and you’ll start believing it. Just like President Dingleberry is going to make America great again.
I don’t see any consideration for what the passengers (the customers paying to ride Amtrak) want in all this decision making. It’s all about cutting cost and running it into the ground so they can do away with Amtrak.
Mr Landy you can’t ever seem to just give your opinion and move on you always have to have the last word don’t you?
ERIC BERGER – Southwest Airlines has cut back 50% on its gourmet offerings. This month, SWA discontinued peanuts (a tablespoonful, mostly chemicals) leaving only the pretzels (a tablespoonful, mostly salt). You know what, I’ve had some decent meals flying SWA because there’s a huge variety of good food at Ronald Reagan National Airport where I sometimes transfer between 75-minute flights. If Amtrak could have got me where I was going (one of America’s booming cities, Amtrak comes nowhere close) I might have needed the diner because Amtrak takes days to get you there and many of its stations are dreary holes in the biosphere. Oh, and since you brought it up, about EPA, EPA doesn’t, the bureaucracy, doesn’t define its own mission and its own policies, the elected Congress and the elected President do.
I ride trains in part because I detest airlines in nearly every possible way, starting with their incredibly poor approach to food. Microwaved meals ruined my honeymoon on Amtrak under George W Bush thanks to the horrible food from the stunningly misnamed Gate Gourmet. Anderson is now trying to ruin every ride for every long distance rider by bringing back this despicable idea. Anderson must be replaced ASAP; he is not competent to run a railroad and he has proven that with virtually every decision he has made so far, starting with the retirement of the Pacific Parlor Cars, the best cars in the fleet. The dining car is the most important car on any long distance train, and they are essential to ridership. Dining car operations can not be assessed as an isolated, independent operation, because unlike on an airliner, food is one of the most important parts of a train trip. People will NOT return to a train that offers bad food on a long trip. But then, Anderson probably knows that, as he has already admitted his enmity for long distance trains, the raison d’etre for Amtrak. He is the Scott Pruitt of transportation, not because of public faux pas and unethical behavior, but because he seems determined to destroy the agency for which he has been given responsibility.
Robert McGuire, your comment makes no sense. If you had read the article you’d realize that. But just for fun, tell us how unions are to blame for Amtrak’s middle of the night decision to eliminate hot cooked meals from their trains.
Not a good sign: he is still wearing his Delta lapel pin.
GARY – The last two pictures TRANS-MAG published of the late, great, brilliant and accomplished Jim McClellan (January 2017, pp 11 and 12) showed a man with a full head of hair. So you’re probably on to something. By the way, I started to lose my own hair while in college over 50 years ago, so that too goes to you point.
I resemble that remark!
ANDREA – Canada does NOT have real trains, except in the Windsor London Toronto Montreal corridor (with a couple of trains on the Sarnia branch). Thirty, forty, fifty years ago Canada had real trains all across the nation. Now outside of the corridor they have cruise trains and just a very few, plus a struggling handful of the remaining remote services. The cruise trains run once in a while and charge thousands of Loonies just to look at them. No one rides them except foreign tourists. The only remaining purpose of VIA Rail Canada, outside of the corridor, is to make Amtrak look great in comparison.
Glad the Unions are finally challenging Anderson on his tactics. I hope that TCU steps up to the plate and challenge Anderson on unstaffing stations. Keep the pressure on.
Mike Lustig
Ms. Hart, I wouldn’t wait that long to go to Canada to ride “real trains” because they have only a couple left and they are barely hanging on.
What do you expect from this bald Mr. Anderson. Bald men lack the ability to have any rational understanding of anything..That has been my observation for many years.
What did people expect when they appointed an airline executive that only knows one way to make money and that is cut,cut cut.We shouldn’t worry though for soon all passenger trains except that wonderful N.E.corridor will be gone and then we can go to Canada to ride real trains.
Such Crap.
I think this is part of an ongoing effort to reduce amenities on the long distance trains that was started under the previous CEO, Mr. Boardman. It may be one of the first under Mr. Anderson, who, being unfamiliar with passenger rail, is certainly showing promise of being able to make a real mess of things, but to say this is the first in a serious, I believe is inaccurate
Turning Amtrak into an airline that runs on steel wheels is not the way to go. Lousy food is a good way to help kill long distance trains. Look at what Southern Pacific did pre-Amtrak.
R. McGuire, how do you figure the unions are a big part of the problem? Who is going to back the employees without unions? The problem at Amtrak is the on-going interference in day to day operations from congress, year in and year out. Who is going to protect railroaders without union involvement? I am a retired rr employee.
I can’t understand what the unions are complaining about/ They are a big part of the problem.