The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees, which together comprise the Rail Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters picketed Amtrak's Newark Penn Station at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15, 2005 to protest a six-year stalemate in contract negotiations which if not resolved will lead to the shutdown of Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.

In addition, the two Unions will be protesting the plans of the White House-appointed Amtrak Board of Directors to break up the railroad with so-called reforms that are designed to attack railroad employees' pensions and outsource union jobs. The Locomotive Engineers represent 3,000 employees who operate Amtrak's trains. The Maintenance of Way Employees represent 2,500 employees who construct and maintain the railroad track, building and bridges and overhead catenary system on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. They represent approximately 40% of Amtrak's unionized workers.

Mark Kenney, General Chairman of the Locomotive Engineers Division said, "The current Amtrak Board of Directors are political patrons of the White House and know nothing about operating a railroad and in fact are opposed to the continued operation of Amtrak. The White House is using the Amtrak Board to engage in old-fashioned union busting in order to shift this public asset to the private campaign contributors of the administration. We are calling upon all who care about rail passenger service in America to contact their representatives to encourage them to properly fund Amtrak and to replace the current Amtrak leadership with competent railroad professionals with a mandate to provide this vital economic service to the American people."

Jed Dodd, General Chairman of the Maintenance of Way Workers Division, said, "We have been trying to negotiate a new agreement with Amtrak's White House-appointed Board of Directors for six long years. Amtrak continues to insist on new terms that will slash health care for our disabled workers, real wage cuts for the rest of us and work rule changes that will brutalize working conditions. White House-appointed political appointees have held us in mediation for five and one-half years. They are opposed to unions and collective bargaining and have only met with us 12 times during that period. This situation is headed to a service shutdown of Amtrak which will also shut down the commuters who depend upon the Northeast Corridor. Rail passengers need to contact their political representatives and insist on a fair resolution of this problem."