Rail Industry News

Workers’ Memorial Day has been held April 28 every year for the past 19 years. On this solemn day, we remember those who were killed or injured on the job and we rededicate ourselves to the struggle of making workplaces safer for current and future workers.

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.

On April 16, 2012, the BLET National Division posted a News Flash article at www.ble-t.org warning our membership of the attack on our Railroad Retirement system that was included in Republican Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s Budget Plan. Since that time, the National Division has received many calls and emails from the membership, many of them curious as to exactly where in the Ryan Budget those attacks were found.

The U.S. Railroad Retirement Board will hold free informational conferences for elected officers of all railroad labor unions throughout 2012.

By a nearly 4-to-1 margin, members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) have ratified a new on-property collective bargaining agreement with Union Pacific.

The U.S. House of Representatives has adopted federal budget legislation sponsored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) that would have devastating effects on the retirement security of both active and retired BLET members, as well as all railroad workers. The measure passed on March 29 by a vote of 228-191, with 10 Republicans joining all of the Democrats in voting against it.

America’s greatest steps forward have come when everyday people stood up and took courageous, visionary, morally compelling action — from strikes that built power for workers and unions, to the struggle to secure the vote for women, to the civil rights movement.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and nine other rail unions were informed by BNSF Railway late yesterday afternoon that the railroad was reversing its decision to implement a new, highly-invasive medical information rule.

In this important election year, the BLET Education & Training Department, in conjunction with the National Legislative Office and the National Association of State Legislative Board Chairmen (NASLBC), will conduct a workshop for BLET State Legislative Board Chairmen in Washington, D.C., from June 3-6, 2012.