John Samuelsen, president of the Transport Workers’ Union, whose members are about 1,500 Amtrak service workers, mechanics and inspectors, said he was sick of paying.
“They gave themselves a nice fat bonus from the backs of the workers who were harmed,” he said. It emphasizes.”
No bonuses were given in 2015, but in 2016 the railway company gave its top executives some cash rewards. In 2016, 2017 and 2018, we cut our losses so much that we spent less than $500,000 a year on payments.
That changed in 2019. With Amtrak nearing breakeven, the size of his top executive bonus payments nearly quadrupled, up from his just over $480,000 a year earlier to a total of nearly $1.8 million for him. Amtrak did not pay bonuses again in 2020 because the virus nearly brought travel to a halt. But in 2021, it paid out $2.3 million, despite reporting its lowest revenue and biggest loss in over a decade.
Steven Gardner, who became Amtrak’s chief executive officer this year, has received more than $766,000 in short-term incentive bonuses since 2016, more than any other executive. One Eleanor Acheson was a close second, receiving about $727,000 during that period. Amtrak declined to provide a full picture of executive compensation, including salaries.
out of a dozen members Amtrak’s current management teamAll but three received more than $200,000 in bonuses last year, ranging from about $230,000 to more than $293,000 for then-president Gardner.
