Amtrak Labor Dispute Wrongly Decided by Arbitrator, Court Rules

The National Railroad Adjustment Board relied on an issue “wholly outside the scope” of its jurisdiction when it ruled in favor of Amtrak in a union dispute over the planned expansion of Washington’s Union Station, a D.C. Circuit panel held.

The Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen disputed Amtrak’s assertion that work in the Railway Express Agency Building—part of the train station expansion plan—falls outside the existing collective bargaining agreement. The union sued in federal court after alleging Amtrak didn’t assign union signalmen work in the building, but the case was moved to arbitration.

The National Railroad Adjustment Board sided with Amtrak ...