BLET News
Have You Registered? The deadline for the Western Regional Meeting is right around the corner
Mount Rainier is a must-see icon of the Washington landscape. Ascending to 14,410 feet above sea level it is located less than 60 miles south of Seattle. ____________________ Registration continues for the BLET’s 2025 Western Regional Meeting in Bellevue, Wash.,...
June 2025 RRB Q&A: Understanding unemployment and sickness benefits for railroad employees
The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) administers the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (RUIA), which provides qualified railroaders with unemployment benefits when they become unemployed but are ready, willing, and able to work, and sickness benefits when they cannot...
AAR de-regulatory playbooks, part 4 in a series: Cutting corners on brake operability puts lives at risk
Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) solicited public feedback on possible federal safety regulations that could be repealed or modified to achieve “meaningful burden reduction while continuing to meet statutory obligations and ensure the...
Educational loans from the BLET’s Greene Fund available to children of members in good standing
All BLET members with adolescent children going on to higher education, whether it be for trade school, associate, bachelor or graduate degrees, please take notice. The Franklin P. Greene Fund, established in 1956, is an educational loan fund set up to assist the...
BLET-produced video shows safety and security threats tied to plan by Class I railroads that allows Mexican engineers to operate trains in the USA
Division 566 Local Chairman Rick Perez (left) and UP-Southern Region GCA General Chairman Scott Alexander are interviewed in BLET's cross-border video. ____________________ The BLET has produced a short video outlining the safety and security threats that are linked...
Obituary: Former BLE International President Clarence Monin, 1940-2025
Former BLE International President Clarence V. Monin passed away peacefully in his sleep on June 26. He was 84 years old. He served in the union’s highest office from 1996-1998. “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Monin family in their time of loss,” said...
Western Regional Meeting is coming soon. Have You Registered? Don’t Delay.
Registration continues for the BLET’s 2025 Western Regional Meeting in Bellevue, Wash., located across Lake Washington from Seattle. The meeting, scheduled for the week of August 18, will take place at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue, 900 Bellevue Way NE, Wash., 98004,...
BLET members ratify new contract with Terminal Railway-Alabama State Docks
BLET members on June 26 ratified a new five-year agreement with the Terminal Railway-Alabama State Docks (TRASD). The BLET represents 14 members at the railroad, and the vote was 10-2 in favor of the new deal. The contract provides retroactive pay dating to 2023 as...
“Big Beautiful Bill” passes
Rail workers got the short end of the stick when Congress passed the massive federal spending and tax package — known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB) — on July 3. The bill’s “No Tax on Overtime” provision (Section 70202) was crafted in such a way as to...
Texas: Investigation by CBS affiliate on “monster trains” exposes dangers to the public caused by extremely long trains
Eddie Strom, President of BLET Division 28, in his interview with television station KOLD News 13 in Tucson regarding train thefts and extremely long trains. ____________________ An investigative report by CBS Texas broadcast in June examines how the use of longer and...
BLET and other rail unions tell DOT and Congress that proposed changes to the established safety culture put railroaders and the public at risk
BMWED President Tony Cardwell testified before members of Congress this week about the potential dangers of over-reliance on technology. ____________________ BLET members rely on Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) investigations to hold railroads accountable, but...
BLET and Teamsters lobby Senate to change AI and no-tax on overtime provisions in the “One Big Beautiful Act”
Two provisions of the massive federal spending and tax package now under consideration in the U.S. Senate, called the “One Big Beautiful Act,” look pretty ugly to the BLET and the Teamsters. One provision of the spending bill, which has nothing to do with federal...
Take Action Alert: Contact your Senators now BLET fighting to get Senate to change “Big Beautiful Bill” to include our members in overtime tax exemption
Right now, the United States Senate is considering reconciliation legislation, also known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBB). Section 70202 (“No Tax on Overtime”) of the OBBB deals with exempting as much as $25,000 in overtime pay from taxation for workers...
President Wallace says BLET will be proactive, not reactive during his state of the union address at Eastern Regional Meeting
BLET President Mark Wallace addresses the crowd in the June 17 open session of the Regional Meeting in Daytona Beach. ____________________ Daytona Beach, the site of last week’s BLET Eastern Regional Meeting, is known as the “world center of racing.” Good slogan and...
Texas: BLET working to secure funding for at-risk Heartland Flyer route
Amtrak 822 highballs north out of Fort Worth bound for Oklahoma CIty on BNSF's Fort Worth Subdivision. Photo by Matt Shell ____________________ On June 5, Amtrak announced that its Heartland Flyer service between Fort Worth, Texas and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma will be...
Colorado: Governor signs new law to beef up rail safety inspectors
Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill on June 4 to fund the hiring of rail safety inspectors. The new law, Senate Bill 162, would impose fees on rail companies to hire six new state rail safety inspectors. The total annual fees collected is capped at $2.9...
Surface Transportation Reauthorization and BLET priorities
Roughly every five years, Congress takes up “Surface Reauthorization.” This broad legislative package covers various federal surface transportation programs, including funding and federal policy for highways, transit (including commuter railroads), and passenger and...
NBC spotlights BLET cross border fight and following a BLET investigative trip to Eagle Pass and El Paso, the union reaches out to the White House
Video still from NBC's investigative report. NBC 5 DFW image ____________________ On June 6, the NBC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth aired an investigative report highlighting BLET’s opposition to Class I railroads being granted waivers that allow Mexican train crews...
Texas: Two BLET-backed bills reach governor’s desk
At the Texas Capitol after passage of HB 1772, from left: Bryce Dondero, TX SLB 1st Vice Chairman; Kameron Sanders, SMART-TD; Rep. Salman Bhojani (Dist. 92); Ben Wright, TXSLB Chairman; and Scott Piekarski, TXSLB Secretary-Treasurer. ____________________ It was a...
Canada: Arbitrator in TCRC, CPKC contract dispute awards 3% raises
A Canadian arbitrator appointed to resolve the contract dispute between members of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and CPKC rendered his decision on May 30. The imposed contract provides 3% general wage increases annually for 2024, 2025, 2026, and 2027. In...
Daily Headlines
ATDA organizes train dispatchers at Genesee & Wyoming
On September 4, 2024, the NMB announced that Train Dispatchers from the Genesee & Wyoming Railroad have voted to unionize with the ATDA.
Rail worker’s death in Ohio railyard highlights union questions about remote control trains
BLET Vice President Randy Fannon, who heads the union’s Safety Task Force, said he thinks, “This tragic incident in Ohio involving a remotely operated train, blindly controlled from behind, would not have happened if there had been a locomotive engineer in the cab.”
BNSF stresses safety but is still held back by longstanding industry issues, report finds
The FRA also reiterated its recommendation for BNSF and all the major freight railroads to sign on to the confidential federal safety reporting hotline for workers to report concerns without fear of being punished.
Back-to-work order issued at CN, CPKC; TCRC will comply, but lawsuit planned
The Canadian arbitrator appointed to resolve a messy railroad labor dispute to protect the North American economy has ordered employees at the country’s two major railroads back to work so both can resume operating.
Canada forces arbitration in freight train labor dispute; Union cries foul
The union representing 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers responded angrily to the order, accusing the railroads of intentionally creating a crisis to force the government to intervene. It also said it would keep its picket lines in place while reviewing the decision.
CN and CPKC begin lockout in Canada
Despite months of good faith negotiations on the part of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, parties remain far apart, and both CN and CPKC have began their lockout of 00:01 today.
Canada’s Labor Minister to meet with rail companies, union to avoid massive shutdown
Without a last-minute agreement or binding arbitration, the bulk of Canada’s freight rail traffic could grind to a halt this week.
TCRC receives lockout notice from CN
Work stoppage still set for 00:01 on Thursday, August 22, unless parties reach last-minute agreement.
Participants line up to bend STB’s ear at rail growth hearing
Regulators will hear from railroad execs, shippers, suppliers, trade groups, rail labor, and analysts at next month’s hearing on the long-term decline in carload volume
Canadian government rejects CN request to intervene in labor dispute ahead of potential lockout, strike
Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon has rejected the Canadian National Railway Company’s request to intervene in the ongoing labour dispute between the company and the union representing railway employees.
