RAIL WORKERS TO PICKET LINES; STRIKE HITS AREA; ABOUT 500 AREA RAIL EMPLOYEES ARE AFFECTED BY WORK STOPPAGE

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Picket lines were to be set up early today at the Burlington Northern Railroad offices in Cape Girardeau and Chaffee as part of a strike by railroad unions against the nation's major railroads.

Pickets at the St. Louis Southwestern ("Cotton Belt") Railroad yard office in Scott City also were scheduled to be set up today.

The unions were free to strike after 11 p.m. Tuesday, but a spokesman for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which was among those planning to strike, said picket lines would be established this morning.

The strike is expected to have little impact on the Cape Girardeau area unless it lasts longer than five days, said Bob Hendrix, president of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce.

Approximately 500 railroad workers who live in the Cape Girardeau-Chaffee-Scott City area were to join fellow union members across the country in staging the strike.

Striking locomotive engineers, conductors, brakemen, maintenance of way workers, and clerk-operators were to be on picket lines at the offices of the Burlington Northern Railroad in Cape Girardeau and Chaffee and the St. Louis Southwestern ("Cotton Belt") Railroad yard office in Scott City.

Chaffee is a crew-change point for Burlington Northern trains that operate between St. Louis and Memphis. Scott City is a crew-change point for Cotton Belt trains that operate between East St. Louis and Pine Bluff, Ark.

The Union Pacific Railroad has operating rights over the Cotton Belt tracks from Scott City to Dexter. Union Pacific train crews change at Poplar Bluff. The UP operates trains from Chicago and Dupo, Ill., southward through Scott City to terminals in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

About 300 Cotton Belt employees working out of the Scott City yard office and 200 Burlington Northern employees from the Chaffee and Cape Girardeau yard offices are affected by the strike, union officials said.

Late Tuesday, railroad union officials in Chaffee and Scott City were notified the Cotton Belt and its parent, the Southern Pacific Railroad, and the Burlington Northern Railroad planned to shut down systemwide operations if the strike occurred. A spokesman for the BN said the railroad does not have enough management and supervisory personnel to operate the freight trains; however, the BN will allow union workers to continue to operate commuter trains in the Chicago area.

Hendrix said that if the strike lasts over five days the impact would be felt by several industries in the Greater Cape Girardeau Industrial Park on West Nash Road.

He said industries that would be affected by a prolonged rail strike are Hardware Wholesalers, Georgia Pacific, Associated Building Centers and Resin Exchange. All depend entirely on rail delivery for wholesale products, he pointed out.

The Procter and Gamble Co. plant north of Cape Girardeau will not be affected, he said.

"They still bring in some raw material by rail, but nothing like it was 10 years ago when most all of their raw product and finished paper products were shipped in and out by rail," said Hendrix. "Since then, they have pretty well converted over to trucks."

Another firm that won't be affected is the Wetterau Food distribution center in Scott City. The wholesaler receives and ships all products by truck.

According to industry statistics, the nation's railroads carry more freight than trucks or airplanes. An exception is bulk commodities carried by barge on inland waterways.

Nearly all new cars and shipments of food and over half of the chemicals and lumber used in the nation are transported by rail. A local example is the Malone & Hyde Co.'s food-distribution center in Sikeston, which supplies a large number of food stores in the Mid-South.

Railroads also transport coal to electrical power plants and steel plants that are not able to receive coal by barge. The Sikeston Municipal Power Plant is among them.

The trucking industry would also feel the impact of a prolonged strike because large numbers of trailers that contain a variety of cargo are transported over long distances on railroad "piggy-back" cars.

The railroads also transport containers on flat cars that are put aboard ships in international commerce.

The unions say the carriers have blocked pay raises and stone-walled negotiations for the past three years. They contend the railroads have prolonged the negotiations to deliberately force a strike, knowing that Congress and the president will step in and order their members back to work.

The unions say they have not had a pay increase in three years. They reject management demands to reduce the number of crewmen in the locomotive or caboose, and a demand that they travel more miles to qualify for a day's pay, and pay more for their health benefits.