Division 566 Local Chairman Rick Perez (left) and UP-Southern Region GCA General Chairman Scott Alexander are interviewed in BLET’s cross-border video.
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The BLET has produced a short video outlining the safety and security threats that are linked to a plan by Class I railroads to allow Mexican engineers to operate trains in the United States. Historically, trains from Mexico stopped at the border for inspection, brake tests and for the Mexican crew to turn the train over to BLET-represented American engineers for operation on American rails.
Federal authorities have granted Union Pacific and CPKC permission to operate trains arriving from Mexico into Texas, with plans for similar operations in New Mexico and possibly Arizona.
The BLET has been pushing back against these attacks on American jobs that threaten the safety of communities along the rails and border security. The union has launched a Take Action campaign to inform Congress about the risks involved in the railroads’ plans, resulting in more than 6,000 letters being sent to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and the governor of Texas. And in a June 2 letter, BLET National President Mark Wallace asked U.S. President Donald J. Trump to take “immediate and decisive action” to help protect national security and American rail jobs at the Southern U.S. border with Mexico. Lobbyists from BLET and the Teamsters also have been having meetings with both elected leaders and administration officials.
The BLET campaign has also involved media outreach. 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 to travel across the southern border and into the United States. A video link to the NBC story can be found here.
A version of the NBC story also can be seen on TikTok. It’s already been viewed more than 360,000 times. See the NBC TikTok story at this link.
National security concerns have grown in recent weeks after a Mexican engineer, an employee of Ferromex, was arrested and charged with smuggling migrants into the U.S. on freight trains. Ferromex is Mexico’s largest freight railroad and is a partner with Class I freight railroads in the U.S.