U.S. House lawmakers will join TCU-IAM members in Philadelphia on Friday to call action against ongoing outsourcing of Amtrak’s local call center jobs there.
Reps. Brendan F. Boyle (D-Pa.) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) will join TCU-IAM members in front of Amtrak’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station to protest the nation’s passenger rail corporation’s unjust removal of good, union-protected jobs, organizers said. The lawmakers will also be joined by Jim Mathews, President of the Rail Passengers Association
The 3:30 p.m. rally will mark the latest action against Amtrak, which has been steadily shifting services and displacing jobs under the leadership of Richard Anderson, the former chief executive of Delta Air Lines.
One of the common criticisms from the elected officials is Amtrak’s contracting with a third-party, non-union, low-wage outsourcers in Florida and Ohio.
In December 2018, members of California’s congressional delegation joined TCU-IAM members in demanding Amtrak keep its Riverside (Calif.) call center open, and 500 TCU-IAM members employed. That facility was shuttered and some of those workers relocated to jobs at Amtrak’s Philadelphia call-center.
Jack Dinsdale, National Vice President for the Transportation Communications Union (TCU-IAM), testified before a House panel in November about how Amtrak is “engaged in a systematic campaign of union busting and union avoidance maneuvers: outsourcing good, skilled jobs of dedicated career employees to low-wage contractors with little to no experience.”
Boyle and Fitzpatrick on Friday will also be joined by staff from the office of Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.).
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