White House Statement on the Report of Presidential Emergency Board No. 214 To Investigate a Railroad Labor Dispute

August 11, 1988

Presidential Emergency Board No. 214 has submitted its report to the President concerning a dispute between the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation (PATH) and the Transportation Communications Union-Carmen Division (TCU-Carmen).

The three-member board was established effective July 10, 1988, by Executive Order 12644, at the request of the TCU-Carmen. The board was chaired by arbitrator Herbert L. Marx, Jr., from New York City. Professor Daniel G. Collins of the New York University School of Law and arbitrator M. David Vaughn of Washington, DC, were appointed as members of the board.

After a formal hearing, informal meetings with the parties, and review of the written submissions, the emergency board made the following recommendations for settlement of the disputes between the parties. The board suggested that the parties follow the wage pattern accepted by five other unions on PATH: the United Transportation Union, the Transport Workers Union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the American Railway Supervisors Association (a division of the TCU). Essentially the same wage pattern has been accepted by most unions representing rail employees on other commuter lines in the New York metropolitan area. The wage increases would be 5 percent in each of 3 years: June 1985 to June 1987. The board conducted an extensive review of the other issues dealing with benefit improvements and rule changes. With the exception of certain betterments in benefits, it did not recommend major contract rule changes.