By Dennis R. Pierce
BLET National President
(Editor’s Note: This message originally appeared in the February 2012 issue of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen News)
CLEVELAND, April 24 — In my January message, I asked all members to join me this year in an effort to mount a defense against the attacks targeting BLET members and the working class. For far too long, working Americans, and their unions, have been blamed for what ails this country. Nothing could be further from the truth, but the only way we can correct the political narrative in this country is to stand up and be heard, in unison. Organized labor, along with non-union working class Americans, must mobilize as the working class backbone of our great nation and let those who would harm the working class know that we will not allow their attacks to go unchallenged.
Some have told me that it’s too late to awaken America to what is really going on in the working middle class, but I disagree. Some have thrown in the towel and feel that we must accept government that works for corporate America at the expense of the working class, but I disagree. I believe that the opposite is true — that if all hard working union men and women stand together, and refuse to succumb to these attacks on the working class, others will join us. We must lead by example, and we cannot afford to idly sit by and hope that someone else will protect our interests.
To overcome this singular challenge of our time, we must continue to unite internally. Since becoming your National President, I have worked to foster unity and to promote a mobilized and participating membership. I have travelled to Union meetings of all kinds all across this great land to ask our proud membership to get involved in fighting for their own future. The message that comes back to me loud and clear at every one of those meetings is that BLET members want a union that will lead on the key issues of the day. The membership wants a union that they can be proud to be part of.
To that end, the BLET National Division kicked off a new PROUD TO BE AMERICAN, PROUD TO BE UNION campaign in February. We started that campaign with my letter to Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), which was reproduced in the Winter 2011 edition of the Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen Journal. That letter made it very clear to all who would listen that this Union will not sit back and allow the rights of the working class to be destroyed. As Union members, we are not only proud Americans; we are the backbone of the middle class that made this nation the great country that it is.
Now, I am proud to tell you that in the coming weeks all BLET members will be issued new membership cards that will reflect their years of membership. Our retired members, who led the way for us for decades, will also receive a new retired member card in appreciation for their service. This may seem like a minor step, but it’s part of a bigger effort this year to reinvigorate our members and strengthen their ties to our union. On the heels of the new membership cards, we will also be announcing a new line of BLET logo gear. Our goal is to get as many members as possible to proudly wear their union “colors” wherever they go; to Little League games, to Memorial Day and July Fourth parades, and even to the grocery store. The message that we can send as a proud united membership is a powerful one: we are standing up for all working class Americans, and we are the first line of defense against the corporate effort to distribute even more of this country’s wealth to the 1% at the expense of the 99%. Not only must Union officers lead by example, but the full membership must set an example for the rest of the American society to see.
I know that there will be naysayers inside and outside our union that will try to diminish our effort. There will be those who continue their negative representations about unions, but you should ask yourself who these union attackers actually serve. Whether it be political candidates, or political pundits, we must look beyond attractive sound bites and, instead, look at whose interests the politician or pundit actually serves. We must all be wary of those who claim to side with us on a social or moral issue, while they work to enact policies that undermine the middle class of this country. As I stated the following in my address to the delegates at our 2010 BLET National Convention:
“. . . I am the officer who was elected to lead the work of this great Brotherhood to improve the economic condition of our members and their families, to secure their health and welfare, to protect their pensions, and to do everything within my power to make sure that BLET members return to their families safe and sound after every day’s work. . . .
“The yardstick we apply when we review candidates for election to political office is whether their deeds match their words in supporting our position on the issues pertinent to our representation of BLET members. What this means is that we may endorse someone for office who supports the BLET’s agenda over an opponent that has personal values on social issues that are more in line with ours.
“If our endorsements were based on social values alone, ignoring the issues that are important to the BLET’s purpose as a union, then we would be unfaithful to our obligation to you as officers.”
My comments from 2010 are still relevant today; our ability to meet our membership’s expectations is directly affected by the politicians that we collectively elect. Join me, get involved in your union and by get involved in our effort to elect those will truly work to advance the cause of the BLET and the American working class.