James Oberstar: “Mr. Chairman, I want to come back to the fundamental issue here, what is driving this issue; what are the costs that are…”

“Mr. Chairman, I want to come back to the fundamental issue here, what is driving this issue; what are the costs that are driving the Amtrak problem. Last year, Amtrak had a $322 million deficit, in 1996. How much of that was caused by labor protection? About $1 million. We cannot lay all of Amtrak's problems at the feet of the working people who run the trains. Amtrak over 2 years laid off 2,000 people. It cost $2 million in labor protective costs. That does not break the back of Amtrak. Does labor protection provisions, a requirement to pay severance costs to the laid-off workers, prevent Amtrak from shutting off rail service? No, it does not. Ask the people in Idaho, Utah, Alabama, Massachusetts, Florida. Amtrak canceled routes in all those States last year because they knew that the labor protection cost was so small, there were so few employees involved, that the effect would be negligible on savings, so they shut the routes down. We cannot lay the problems of Amtrak at the feet of working men and women.”