BLE Focus

Winter 2000
Volume 107 - No. 4

BLE Focus

Education & Organizing

The BLE's education and organizing resources were put to an Herculean test early in 2000 because of the ongoing attack by the UTU. The Department of Education & Training and the Department of Internal Organizing, Mobilizing & Strategic Planning - both under the direction of Vice-President W.C. Walpert - did an outstanding job defending the BLE in the field.

Building on a plan originally designed in October of 1999, approximately 800 BLE officers and members launched a massive educational and informational campaign on the Union Pacific property shortly after the year 2000 began. BLE National Mobilization Team members fought a ground war and blanketed the property with documents to refute the UTU propaganda machine, in preparation for a "winner take all" showdown with the UTU for the right to represent UP operating employees.

Although that election never materialized, because a special panel appointed by the National Mediation Board (NMB) unanimously supported the BLE's position to preserve the historic operating craft structure, this extraordinary effort cut deeply into the numerical membership advantage enjoyed by the UTU.

Because of the successful efforts by the National Mobilization Team, BLE Organizers found a most receptive audience among UTU members who were alienated by the anti-union tactics of UTU leadership. This contributed to the BLE's impressive growth streak in the year 2000, on which we plan to build in 2001.

During the first 10 months of the year, the BLE processed 3,138 membership applications. Many of these new members - trainmen and other former UTU members - decided to join the BLE as the result of organizing efforts by the National Mobilization Team.

The BLE chartered a number of new divisions this year, including two that were profiled in the August edition of The Locomotive Engineer Newsletter. These divisions - 218 and 244, both in Laredo, Texas - marked a pair of "firsts" for the BLE. Division 218 is the first division in BLE history to be chartered exclusively to trainmen. Division 244, from the Texas-Mexican Railway, also is unique in that it admits to the BLE "train and engine service employees" for the first time in history. In addition, local committees of adjustment on every major property were expanded to include a train service member, to handle the volume of issues created by the growth in our train service membership ranks.

Division 218 was chartered for train service employees on the Union Pacific Railroad. The recruitment of trainmen members can be traced to Jan. 12, 1998, when the UTU filed an application with the National Mediation Board seeking to eliminate all operating crafts. While BLE members certainly remember their fight to protect the craft of locomotive engineer, the chartering of Division 218 was significant as it represented a rebellion among UTU members to save all the operating crafts threatened by UTU's application to the NMB.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of UTU members became disillusioned with the path of destruction UTU leaders had taken. Many, like the Brothers and Sisters who eventually formed Division 218 in Laredo, turned to the BLE for relief.

The BLE also welcomed the members of Division 244 from the Tex Mex Railway. These Brothers give the BLE a diversified membership as they represent the first "train and engine service employees" to belong to the BLE.

This combined craft was forced on the Tex Mex Brothers by the NMB at the request of the UTU, after the BLE had successfully completed an "A" card drive among Tex Mex locomotive engineers, and filed for a representation election for the craft. The UTU asked the NMB to destroy the existing craft structure in an effort to thwart a likely BLE victory in that election.

Shortly after making the "train and engine service employee" classification an official craft, the NMB quashed the BLE's representation election application, and suspended all such elections for a period of two years.

Workers on the Tex Mex voiced their outrage with the combined craft issue in a certified letter to UTU President Charles Little. "Your position that the lines of distinction between the craft of locomotive engineer and conductor have become blurred to the point of extinction is totally without merit on the Tex Mex," the workers wrote. Angered by the actions of the UTU leadership, 22 Tex Mex workers submitted applications to the BLE and formed Division 244. These brothers were granted a division charter and have their own General Committee of Adjustment, as well. Brother George Leyendecker serves as both General Chairman and Local Chairman.

Looking Ahead

The Education & Training Department is preparing to convert many of its materials to a format that can be used on the BLE's website. The goal is to make as much education and training available on-line as possible. Earlier this year, training videos on locomotive inspection and the Hours of Service Act were made available in a streaming video format at both fast and slow connection speeds.

The BLE also is putting the finishing touches on a restructuring of our mobilization network. The improved network will be general committee-based, and will facilitate mobilization campaigns on a state-by-state basis for legislative and political mobilizations, and on a property-by-property basis for other mobilizations.

On the organizing front, the chartering of Divisions 218 and 244 have exposed the falsity of a key UTU claim... that non-engineer members of the BLE are second-class citizens under the BLE Constitution. BLE members have known that there was no truth to such allegations since the merger of the BLE and the Rail Canada Traffic Controllers' (RCTC) organization in early 1995. Since that time, Canadian traffic controllers have been full-fledged BLE members with their own autonomous divisions and general committee of adjustment. The chartering of Divisions 218 and 244 drives home the fact that the BLE is structured - today - to meet the representational needs of all operating craft employees.

In recent months, our organizing efforts have been somewhat hampered because a number of carriers have begun refusing to allow the BLE to provide minority representation for its members working in train service, despite more than a decade of established practice. In early December, five train service employees from the former Chicago & Northwestern - one of whom is a conductor with 33 years' seniority - filed suit against the UTU and the Union Pacific Railroad for colluding to deprive them of their choice of representative. This is only the first in a series of actions that will put the BLE in a position of once again aggressively seeking new members in the coming year.

But, essential to sustained growth is the need for BLE members to continue as the most educated and mobilized membership base in rail labor. Broadening education and mobilization are key goals for the new year.

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