Spring 2000
Volume 107 - No. 1
Spring 2000
Volume 107 - No. 1
President's Message
Solidarity or isolation? It's time to choose
It's sad to see a great, proud organization like the UTU being led down the path to self-destruction by its leadership. That's a difficult admission for me to make - given President Little's avowed intention to engage the BLE in a "fight to the finish" - but it's true, nonetheless.
By now most of you know that the UTU has isolated itself and its membership
from the House of Labor, by turning its back on and walking away from the
AFLCIO. Many of you also are aware that the Little regime has stepped
up its attack on the BLE, by filing an application for a single craft on
the Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis and sending advance scouts
onto Manufacturers' Railway, the Illinois & Midland Rail Link, and the
Wheeling & Lake Erie.
In each case, the goal is not to simply raid our membership and attempt to replace us as collective bargaining representative. That would be reprehensible enough. Rather, the UTU leadership is attempting to build a series of single-craft National Mediation Board (NMB) decisions to try to undermine our victory on the Union Pacific earlier this year.
In other words, an effort is underway to destroy the BLE by annihilating the operating craft structure in the United States, from coast to coast. If you don't believe me, just ask the men and women who work for the Texas Mexican Railway. When a majority of, first, the locomotive engineers and, later, all operating employees on TexMex expressed the desire to be represented by the BLE, the UTU filed a single-craft application and then hid behind the NMB's ruling to deny these workers their democratic right to choose their representative for the next two years.
This is not the only front on which the Little leadership is engaging us. Through hysterical rhetoric and blatant misrepresentation of the BLE's position on Railroad Retirement reform, the UTU also is trying to turn our fellow affiliates in the Rail Labor Division of the AFLCIO's Transportation Trades Department against us on this issue and in general. Sadly, one union actually has snatched the bait dangled by Little.
These attacks could not come at a worse time for both BLE and UTU members. The day is coming when next-generation technology, such as positive train control and remote control locomotive operation, will have to be addressed. Now, more than ever before, is the time for cooperation for the protection and benefit of all.
But the Little Administration, like its predecessors, isn't about to do that. Over the past ten years, a succession of BLE Presidents have made a series of concrete proposals to the UTU to build a working relationship that could benefit the members of both organizations. And each time a BLE President reached out his hand in solidarity, the UTU President bit it. The guiding philosophy has been the schizophrenic position that either the BLE and the UTU are marching to the altar, or they are squaring off on a battlefield, with nothing in between.
That is simply unacceptable. The fact that the UTU leadership continues to pursue this course indicates one of three things ... they are either incredibly arrogant, incapable of getting the message, or just aren't paying attention.
This attitude of the handful who are in control at the top of the UTU is a shameful betrayal of the interests of UTU members. It also dishonors the thousands of UTU officers and activists who conduct themselves in a manner befitting genuine trade unionists. And, although I respect the loyalty to organization without which no union could function, the time has come to recognize that loyalty toward the Little leadership by good union leaders and members only gives this renegade group aid and comfort as they pursue their despicable agenda.
And so, to break out of the expensive and insane cycle of destruction to which Little & Company seem hell-bent on perpetuating, I am going to make a commitment and issue two challenges. My commitment is this ... in our dealings with the industry, with the Congress and with the regulators, we will continue to strive for the preservation of all the historic operating crafts, and will fight for the job security and protection of all men and women working in all crafts.
My first challenge is to the leadership and members of the BLE: I want you to adopt my commitment as your commitment, and proffer the hand of solidarity and friendship to your counterparts in the UTU at every opportunity. My second challenge is to the vast majority of UTU officers, activists, leaders and members who are sickened by the ignominious course of action Little and his cohorts are pursuing: Rejoin the House of Labor and take control of your own destiny by joining the BLE - the power to end Charlie's war rests in your hands.
© 2000 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers