We will not be victims "UTU members are not in this world for the benefit of railroad executives and scab unions," said UTU International President Paul Thompson, June 12. "We will not be victims of railroad CEOs seeking to boost their stock price and year-end bonus, nor will we be victims of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), which has sold out their members’ COLA, agreed to unmanned train operations and seeks to steal the jobs and agreements of UTU members," he said.Thompson made the comments during UTU’s regional meeting in Kansas City, which attracted some 800 registrants. During his state of the union address, Thompson reviewed the railroads’ refusal to address, at the bargaining table, entry-level rates of pay -- notwithstanding a written agreement to do so. He also reviewed recently negotiated agreements between the BLET and CSX and BNSF that, if allowed by courts to stand, could cause thousands of conductors and trainmen to lose their jobs. "Mr. Railroad CEO," Thompson said, "we will take our fight for justice to the halls of Congress if you don’t negotiate at the bargaining table. As for your attempts to gain tax credits and other public funding support, there will be no more help from the UTU."Thompson had especially harsh words for the BLET, whose signed agreement with BNSF would permit yard operations without a ground crew, have engineers use remote control belt packs to operate trains in road service, and allow dispatchers to operate trains without any crew members aboard -- zero-person train operations. The UTU intends to challenge that contract in the courts, and already has filed suit to overturn a BLET/CSX agreement that would infringe on UTU agreements and eliminate UTU-represented jobs. The CSX and BNSF agreements, which would put UTU members on the street, were negotiated by the BLET after BLET President Don Hahs personally pledged solidarity with the UTU and sat in on UTU negotiating sessions."To you, Mr. Hahs of the double-crossing BLET, I tried to make peace. You tried to take advantage. You and your organization, which I no longer call a union, are not going to get away with stealing our jobs and our agreements. I brought you into our house, and what the hell did you do but try and steal the furniture?" Thompson, recalling how the BLET once sought unsuccessfully to sell out the jobs of locomotive firemen in exchange for an additional $1.50 per day paid to engineers, said, "This leopard just cannot change its spots."The UTU and its members," Thompson said, "will not be victims of employer greed -- not today, not tomorrow and not ever. Unions exist to protect their members from the strength of carriers. The proposed merger of the UTU with the Sheet Metal Workers International Association will pool crucial financial and other resources to increase our strength at the bargaining table and in Congress. "It is essential that we match the strength of the carriers," Thompson said. "If we are seen as a paper tiger, the carriers, with the help of the BLET, will call our bluff. If I had but one sentence to explain why this merger must be ratified, the sentence would be a quotation from Eugene V. Debs, who helped to found one UTU predecessor organization and was an officer of another UTU predecessor. Debs said:'Labor can organize, it can unify, it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command.'"Brothers and sisters," urged Thompson, "ratify this merger. Give us the tools we need to do the job successfully of improving your wages, benefits and working conditions, and making your jobs more secure."
June 14, 2007
