CLEVELAND, January 20 — The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainman kicked off its 2006 organizing campaign with a representation election victory at the Panhandle Northern Railroad (PNR).
And if things go according to plan, it will be the first of many victories this year.
“Our goal is aggressive organizing on shortline railroads, targeting several companies,” said Tommy Miller, the BLET’s Organizing Director. “This is a good start to the year.”
The workers at the PNR received substandard wages and were “treated worse than any group I’ve organized in a long time,” Miller said.
Like many shortlines, the PNR can force it employees to work in different crafts on different days depending on need.
“They never know what their job is going to be,” Miller said. “They may be called to work as an engineer or conductor or track worker or maybe in the diesel shop. The idea of a single craft employee who is expected to do everything is deplorable.”
The practice hurts employee morale and leads to higher injury rates, Miller said.
“The workers want this practice to be done away with during negotiations, which is a main reason why they came to the BLET.”
They were so adamant in their beliefs that 99 percent of eligible workers voted to join the BLET.
“I want to thank the guys for sticking with us and staying firm,” Miller said.
Miller credited the Teamsters for helping to make the organizing victory a reality.
“I want to thank John Murphy, Director of the Rail Conference, for giving me Bob Kruezer and Bob Ramshaw to help organize this railroad,” Miller said. “John Murphy is doing everything he can to assist our Organizing Department. Anything I’ve ever asked of Mr. Murphy has been provided through the Teamsters.”
Miller said there are plans in place to make 2006 a successful year for shortline organizing, not only for BLET, but also for the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED) of the Rail Conference.
“We’ll be working alongside the BMWED Organizing Department trying to organize together,” Miller said. “We have had several meetings with Tim McCall, the BMWED Organizing Director, John Murphy, and the IBT organizers to develop our plan for this year. We’re planning to organize better together now and in the future.”
The PNR is a former Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (now BNSF) line that operates on 31 miles of track and runs between the towns of Panhandle and Borger, Texas. The PNR main line is primarily continuous welded rail. Borger is the home of the nation’s largest inland petrochemical complex. PNR handles carbon black, liquid petroleum gas, chemicals, petroleum products, scrap metal, fertilizer and grain, and serves Agrium, Chevron Phillips, Conoco Phillips, Degussa Engineered Carbons, Sid Richardson, Texas Pipe, Van Waters and others.
PNR is a subsidiary of OmniTRAX, a transportation holding company with 17 railroads in three Canadian provinces and six U.S. states.