Amtrak, unions settle

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Amtrak reached a tentative agreement with nine labor unions yesterday to avert a potentially devastating strike at the end of the month.

The deal would give the unions many of the wage and benefit concessions they had sought since their last contract expired on Dec. 31, 1999.

The agreement adopts recommendations issued Dec. 30 by a presidential emergency board the Bush administration appointed to avoid a strike.

Union leaders said they expect their members to ratify the agreement in the next few weeks.

"This new year brings a potential close to an eight-year struggle for our brothers and sisters of Amtrak," Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen President W. Dan Pickett said.

The presidential emergency board's report, which recommended that Amtrak grant back wages to its workers, triggered a 30-day countdown until a strike would become legal.

"The long overdue compensation for these workers is finally at hand," Mr. Pickett said.

Amtrak officials have said the back pay and wage concessions the unions demanded would burden them with a $150 million funding shortfall if the money is paid in the current fiscal year.

For Washington area commuters, the agreement means they will not need to find alternatives to Maryland's MARC commuter rail service or the Virginia Railway Express to get in and out of the District. Amtrak employees operate and maintain trains for both commuter rail agencies. A strike would have crippled their ability to provide service.

"Relief," said Jawauna Greene, spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, which oversees MARC, to describe her reaction to the tentative labor agreement.