Congress Delays Move on Halting Rail Strike : Transportation: About 1,500 commuters in Orange County are forced to seek other ways to get to work.

WASHINGTON —  With the nation’s freight railroad system paralyzed and Amtrak’s long-distance passenger service crippled, Congress moved cautiously Wednesday to deal with the shutdown, despite a demand from President Bush for immediate action to restore train service.

The Bush Administration warned that economic losses from the freight line strike and lockout would amount to $1 billion a day, while the Assn. of American Railroads estimated them at $50 million a day at the outset, potentially rising to $637 million a day if it lasted two weeks.

Under the Railway Labor Act, Congress can end a railroad strike if it is hurting U.S. commerce. But despite the potentially staggering costs, the House and Senate seemed in no hurry to act, delaying any legislation to resolve the crisis for another 24 to 48 hours.

The strike forced about 1,500 Orange County rail commuters to find alternative ways to get to work Wednesday. Eight Amtrak trains that carry passengers between San Diego and Los Angeles were sidetracked, as well as a separate commuter train operated by Amtrak for the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Most businesses seemed largely unaffected on the first day of the shutdown but auto manufacturers, farmers, steelmakers and other industries pleaded for a quick solution, saying that continued interruption of rail service would force them to close plants and lay off thousands of workers within days.

Rail commuters were largely spared, except those in the San Diego-Los Angeles corridor, and were able to get to their jobs--at least for now--because three unions delayed their threatened strike against Amtrak until 12:01 a.m. Friday at the earliest.

The greatest single strike impact on passenger service was in Southern California, where eight daily round-trip San Diegan trains were sidetracked. More than 5,500 people--most of them commuters from San Diego and Orange counties to Los Angeles--were forced to find other ways to get to work.

In addition, about 3,000 commuters who use the Norfolk Southern line in Chicago will not be able to take the train to work from southwestern suburbs because they cross tracks operated by CSX, the only struck carrier. No other commuter lines in the Chicago area will be affected by the shutdown, however.

Commuter trains in New York and Philadelphia largely remained in operation. Amtrak was able to keep trains running in the Northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, where it owns its own lines. Amtrak’s service outside the Northeast corridor was crippled because those trains use some of the same tracks as the freight lines being struck.

The shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. EDT Wednesday when about 1,500 members of the International Assn. of Machinists struck CSX Corp.--one of the largest freight carriers operating east of the Mississippi River--to enforce demands for higher wages and restrictions on the railroad’s use of outside contractors.

The union set up picket lines at several East Coast locations. In retaliation, major freight lines began shutting down all their operations at 2 a.m. EDT in what trade unions called a management-imposed lockout.

Edwin Harper, president of the Assn. of American Railroads, said that railroad officials had no choice because of the “seamless nature of the nation’s freight rail system.”

“A strike that begins in one region of the country affects service in the entire nation,” he said.

That move--involving as many as 40 freight railroads including Conrail--in turn caused Amtrak’s problems.

The machinists union said that it decided to strike CSX after 4 1/2 “frustrating and fruitless” years of talks because it thought it would have minimal impact on passengers and shippers.

The union said that its disputes with the railroads are over subcontracting, health care and its request for a 10% “skill differential,” in additional to a general wage hike that it says would correct inequities in its members’ pay.

They expressed anger at the move by the railroads.

“This is an outrageous action by the railroads in their attempt to stampede Congress into imposing a management-biased contract on their workers,” Mac Fleming, president of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, said in a statement early Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Amtrak reached tentative accord with three unions. But there were no settlements with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the maintenance workers and the machinists.

Leaders of the three unions that are still bargaining with Amtrak said they decided to postpone a work stoppage because they detected signs of progress in the negotiations, which have been going on since 1988.

Key Democrats in Congress said that a renewed cooling-off period to allow bargaining to continue was one option being considered, in addition to the Administration’s proposal to impose settlement terms that the railroads have accepted but the unions have spurned as inadequate.

But the Administration continued Wednesday to press throughout the day for congressional action.

Transportation Secretary Andrew H. Card Jr. testified before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that the shutdown should be halted immediately before it inflicts any more damage on a faltering economy.

And Michael J. Boskin, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that the agency’s best estimate is that the economy will lose about $1 billion for every day the shutdown continues, possibly slicing a sizable amount off the nation’s growth rate.

Congressional support for swift action was weakened by the fact that the rail unions struck only one major carrier and the railroads retaliated by locking out 200,000 employees and suspending freight service from coast to coast.

Pressure on Congress to refrain from interference came from the AFL-CIO, which condemned the railroads for staging a “national lockout.”

“If the railroads are so concerned about customers, why did they take this local problem and make it a national problem?” Rep. Gerry Sikorski (D-Minn.) asked Card.

“The reality is the trains have stopped running,” said Card, who said that he did not wish to assign blame to either side in the tangled 4-year-old disputes that involve three unions and three sets of negotiations.

“We have a contrived national emergency,” said Rep. Dennis E. Eckart (D-Ohio). “Why did you let this happen?” Card said that the White House has exhausted its possible remedies and that negotiations were stalled.

Rep. Al Swift (D-Wash.), chairman of the panel, added: “Congress is uncomfortable in the role of picking winners and losers in labor disputes.”

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over rail labor legislation, appeared unwilling to move quickly in this dispute as Congress did in April, 1991, when it halted a strike within 19 hours.

In questioning National Mediation Board Chairman Patrick J. Cleary, for example, he said that he wanted to take the time to draw legislation carefully so that it would not lead to further labor troubles in the future.

Dingell said that it might require creation of another presidential emergency board, for example, to sort through the recommendations of previous boards and put them into contract language that Congress might enact into law.

Reports by the presidential emergency boards in the three disputes, he said, are not easily translated into contract language and it might take weeks to get both sides to agree on language or go through an arbitration process for the same purpose.

Dingell, who clearly wants to shape legislation carefully, also put pressure on Amtrak and other rail carriers to settle their disputes by negotiation rather than risk the outcome of another White House emergency panel.

In the Senate, the Labor and Human Resources Committee, chaired by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), was awaiting House action without even scheduling a hearing on the shutdown.

Times staff writers Mark A. Stein and Jesus Sanchez in Los Angeles, Jeffrey A. Perlman in Orange County and Tracy Shryer in Chicago also contributed to this story.

FINDING WAYS TO MAKE DO: O.C. workers cope by resorting to braving the freeways. A24

REPLACING THE TRAINS: Buses offering services. A24

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