§159a Special Procedure for Commuter Service

Summary

These rules apply to disputes covered by this law between a publicly funded, publicly run commuter rail carrier (including Amtrak Commuter Services Corporation) and its workers, unless another law says otherwise. If the parties do not settle and the President has not already set up an emergency board, either a party or a State Governor can ask the President to create one. When the President creates a board, it must investigate and report, and no party may change the disputed working conditions, except by agreement, for 120 days starting on the board’s creation. The President may also set up a board on his own, and the same rules apply. If there is no settlement, the National Mediation Board will hold a public hearing within 60 days of the emergency board’s start, where each side must say why they rejected the board’s recommendations. If still unresolved after the 120 days, any party or a Governor can ask the President for another emergency board, which the President must create. Within 30 days the parties must give final offers, and within 30 days the board will pick the more reasonable offer and report to the President. From the request for that second board until 60 days after its report, the disputed conditions must stay the same unless both sides agree to change them. If the board picks the carrier’s offer and the workers later strike after that 60-day period, those workers cannot get benefits under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act during the strike. If the board picks the workers’ offer and the carrier refuses it and the workers then strike after the 60-day period, the carrier loses the right to participate in carrier benefit agreements that pay carriers during a work stoppage.