May 2011 - Amtrak

10 | May 2011 Amtrak Ink
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Amtrak Leverages Assets Through
Reinvigorated Union – Management Partnership
ince last fall, local union representatives and management
employees at the mechanical facility in Beech Grove, Ind., have
been holding weekly meetings to find answers to a pressing
question: How to improve efficiency, save money and jobs —
and position the shop to win competitive bids for new outside work?
The result so far: More than $230,000 in estimated annual savings
as employees at the shop repair or refurbish many items once purchased
from suppliers and outside vendors.
Similar conversations and changes are taking place at the shops
at Bear and Wilmington, Del., with similarly positive outcomes.
The renewed partnership between the unions and management
has its roots, to a certain extent, in a shared recognition on both
sides that future growth requires collaboration and a hard look at
the present, without dwelling on the past.
“It really comes down to the leadership at Amtrak right now,”
says Gary Maslanka, international vice president of the railroad
division for the Transportation Workers Union (TWU). “[President
and CEO] Joe Boardman has really demonstrated his commitment
to the value of employees and to working with union employees collaboratively.”
Maslanka says the unions and Amtrak management have been
Beech Grove recently won a competitive bid
to rebuild three locomotives for the North
Carolina Department of Transportation.
studying the successes and experiences of American Airlines’
mechanical operations. He and others visited American’s mechanical
facilities in Tulsa, Okla., late last summer.
American has been the only major airline to continue to overhaul
its own equipment rather than using outside vendors, says
Charlie Woodcock, chief labor relations officer at Amtrak, who went
along on that visit. He says he’s seen renewed energy at the Amtrak
shops in the months since the visit.
“The overarching goal now is to keep work in-house when it
makes sense to do that, and to win outside contracts, to be competitive,”
Woodcock says.
“By that, I mean, to compete not just on price, but on quality,” he
says. “We want to be a lean operation that pays good union wages
and is able to deliver high-quality work with a quick turnaround
from start to completion.”
Looking to the Future
At Beech Grove, one recent change has been to take used equalizers
— which provide suspension for the cars when they’re attached
to the trucks — and repair and refurbish them at the shop rather
than buying new equipment.
A new equalizer from a vendor costs the company just over
Photo: Mike MIlburn