BLET Focus

Fall/Winter 2004
Volume 111 - No. 3 & 4

BLET Focus

Getting Bigger ... Getting Stronger

BMWE members overwhelmingly approve merger to join IBT Rail Conference

From left: Don Hahs, BLET National President; Jim Hoffa, IBT General President; and Freddie Simpson, BMWE President.

On October 27, members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes officially made their voices heard by voting to merge with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

By a 76 percent majority, members of the BMWE voted in favor of following the vote of BLET members a year earlier and joining their BLET Brothers and Sisters as a member of the IBT Rail Conference.

"This is an extraordinary moment in the history of the labor movement," said Jim Hoffa, Teamsters General President. "As did my father, I have envisioned one union representing all transportation workers - roads to rails, ports to planes - that would provide workers with real power on the job and in the political arena. This historic merger brings us closer to our vision of that seamless transportation union."

With the addition of the BMWE, more than 42 percent of rail labor is now organized under the Teamster umbrella. The Teamsters Rail Conference now represents almost 70,000 rail members.

"On behalf of the 55,000 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, I welcome our Brothers and Sisters of the BMWE into the Rail Conference," BLET National President Don Hahs said. "I look forward to working together with the BMWE and IBT in a successful partnership."

Freddie Simpson, the President of the BMWE, will become President of the BMWE Division of the Teamsters Rail Conference.

"We are proud and excited to be part of the Teamsters Rail Conference," Simpson said. "With over 42 percent of union members in the rail industry now united under the Teamsters banner, the rail corporations are going to be in for a tough fight at the bargaining table. This merger is going to end rail corporations' 'business-as-usual' approach to contract negotiations. With both the BMWE and the BLET together as autonomous divisions of the Teamsters Rail Conference, rail workers will have greater power at the workplace, in Congress and in negotiations.

"I'm ecstatic about the possibilities for the future with the BLET and BMWE in the same house," President Simpson continued. "The possibilities are limitless."

Working Together

Immediately following the BMWE membership's approval of the merger, planning and organizing meetings were scheduled to help bring the BMWE into the fold.

In addition, several strategic planning meetings including the BMWE, IBT and BLET have already been scheduled for early 2005.

The BMWE and BLET are two of several rail labor unions negotiating together in the upcoming round of collective bargaining. For years, all rail labor bargained together over health care in a group known as the CRLO. It is hoped that by working together on pay and working conditions, the unions will be able to present united front and obtain improvements from the carriers.

"Rail management has perfected the divide and conquer strategy when it comes to bargaining with Rail Labor," President Hahs said. "It is our hope that by coming together, we can obtain better contracts."

The organizations plan to serve joint Section 6 notices in January of 2005.

History of the BMWE

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes (BMWE) represents the workers who build and maintain the tracks, bridges, buildings and other structures on the railroads of the United States and Canada.

The BMWE was founded in 1887, at Demopolis, Alabama, as a fraternal organization by Track Foreman John T. Wilson. Once a union with over 350,000 members, automation, the rise of the trucking and airline industry, coupled with the policies of a conservative government, has depleted the ranks of the BMWE to under 60,000 members.

The Rail Conference

The IBT Rail Conference now represents over 40 percent of rail labor. The conference, which is only a year old, now has unprecedented power in the railroad industry. This power will, hopefully, turn in impressive gains in the bargaining and political arenas.

Like the BLET, the BMWE will now have full access to all of the resources that the 1.4 million member Teamsters can provide. Over the past year, the BLET has utilized these resources for the betterment of their members.

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