Amtrak conductor to resign after making comments against Kerry

[Nambe]

JEFFERSON CITY (AP)

An Amtrak conductor says he'll resign after suggesting that his train passengers should vote against Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Conductor Leslie Farr is the Republican challenger to Democratic Congressman William Lacy Clay of St. Louis. He also is a delegate to next week's Republican National Convention. .. Farr faced a company hearing later this week. But he says today that he'll resign and instead focus on his campaign.

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[Wickerman]

1. gonna focus on his campaign - and soon he can focus more time

on his family, as the saying goes.

[XanaDUer]

2. Whatever happened to just doing your job

and keeping your political editorials to yourself?

:eyes:

3. but whatever happened to being able to speak your mind

even on your job?

It's not like the guy said vote for Bush or I'm throwing you off the train is it? Is it because he works for Amtrak? Is there is a policy of Amtrak against expressing a political opinion?
Is that a good thing?
I'd like to know more about the circumstances surrounding this.
Guess it's time for some research.

edit -- Ok I read the article. It does look like he went over the line a bit.

I still think we should be careful about restricting people's speech though.

[XanaDUer]

4. I would have thought it was just as ridiculous...

what does doing your job as a conductor have to do with whom your riders vote for?

8. well nothing really

I agree the job doesn't have anything to do with that.

After realizing he did it over the p.a. I'd say he crossed a line.
I was initially thinking it was something more like saying something to an individual customer while taking their ticket.

It still sounds to me like if I was a passenger on that train I would have just thought it was the guy trying to tell a joke and lighten the mood.

Raising it to the level of him quitting his job is a bit much.

[pagerbear]

6. This was no conversation.

"He used the public address system to tell passengers on a Kansas City-to-St. Louis train that they'd be delayed while waiting for Kerry's train to head west from St. Louis. Then Farr told passengers to vote accordingly in November."

[northzax]

7. true, but Amtrak is a government sposored entity

and therefore their employees should be apolitical on the job. Private companies can do whatever they want. CSX can hang a banner on every train saying 'vote for bush' United airlines can allow it's employess to lecture people on God, Bush or Hitler, whatever they want. But Amtrak is a publically funded (well, it is supposed to be) and therefore it is not appropriate for the employees to make political statements while on the job. On their own time, they can, and should, be involved in politics, but on the job, leave it alone.

[noahmijo]

10. Here's the problem with speaking your mind on the job

When on the job you aren't speaking just your mind you are a representitive of your company. What you say may impact customer's attitudes towards the business.

If you had an employee say "Republicans welcome!" at your business which you fund and pay for what would you do?

You can't exclude ANY group when running a business. A successful business that has long term profits in mind caters to ALL groups.

Update: I just noticed someone said Amtrak is a govt company, true but they still rake in profits, or do they? someone educate me last I checked Amtrak doesn't give free rides which means they still have to work in a method that says "send us your money" which means they still have to establish and maintain a customer base.

13. What about college professors?

I was going to agree with what seems to be the prevailing wisdom.
I'd almost changed my mind.

But then I thought of the example of teachers.

Same logic could be applied to them. They represent a government entity or a private business.

Would we want them losing their jobs for saying someone should vote a certain way?

"Should" in the non-coercive sense of the word.

[noahmijo]

15. Teachers are non-profit that's the difference

In public schools this is the case. In universities, it's is my belief that universities are widely accepted as being areas where opinions are wide so the idea that a student would take his/her tuition money elsewhere is not really likely, unlike when a company rep pisses off a customer.

Put simply I would oppose any and all efforts to silence the opinions of teachers because of this difference between them and company reps.

16. Yes, I tend to agree actually

I do think it's an interesting question & thought I would raise it because of my resistance to jumping on a bandwagon that results in silencing opinion.

I still have a feeling the conductor himself might have just thought he was making an innocent joke.

[noahmijo]

17. You know what is strange I think the version I heard

was that the conductor was actually SUPPORTING Kerry. I dunno i coulda misread it, but yea I won't take any stance until I hear the entire story. If all it was was like an innocent joke or something I mean yea I would disagree with him being fired for that, at worst he deserved a chit chat with the boss where he would be ask to please dispense with the political talk on the job.

[delete_bush]

5. Gee, wonder what his position is on

obtaining more funding for Amtrak.

[blueknight]

9. i hope he nevers finds another job!

he was a conductor for amtrak, which meant he was either in the united transportation union or the ble-teamsters union, both which have endorsed kerry. and both which are responsible for the good wages he was being paid.

[Catfight]

11. Pilots preaching and telling everyone they have to be saved, conductors

politicizing, what the hell is Bush teaching these idiots? Soon we'll be kneeling when Bush enters anywhere....shsss...I don't want to give the callow asshole any ideas.

[PhuLoi]

12. A conductor is the ultimate authority on a train.

He has the authority to stop the train and have passengers put off at any point. If I were a passenger and heard political dictates announced over a loudspeaker, I would be very concerned.

[Kolesar]

14. dipshit Eastern Airlines pilot was bitching about Clinton's haircut

I did not even know the right wing story about Clinton's haircut at the time I got on this flight. Back in the 1990s, I got on a flight and the pilot got on the speaker and said that we would be delayed and made some snot comment about Clinton.

Then one of the flight attendents spoke and said "somebody voted for him".

[dArKeR]

18. Kerry should call this guy and tell him he respects his freedom to

speak his mind and please don't quit.

[Fovea]

19. This particular train is like a culture war vignette

There are two trains, the Ann Rutledge and the Missouri Mule. They are supposed to take bikes unboxed. (the only ones in the midwest)

I ride it regularly with my bike. I am disabled, and because the bike I ride is not the usual thing, I get hassled about it half the time.
The other half of the time, the crewmembers are helpful and solicitous.

I have had both experiences in one trip. Having an assistant help me load my bike on, and a conductor tell me that I can't take it.
The point that needs to be made is that Amtrak is having a hard time getting one policy in place on a lot of issues on this route. Some butt is being kicked here, and there is room for some butt kicking on this line.

I believe that Mr. Gunn is on record as being disappointed with this aspect of Amtrak service. I hope he uses this incident as an excuse to ship this route into shape. On these routes, I believe the real problem starts in regional management. I hope they have gotten some new motivation to serve the public appropriately.

Having said that, the airlines get a larger share of federal money, and have no such Hatch Act responsibilities.