September 24, 2026 | News, NS, STB, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
Jess Conard, who recently joined the BLET National Division staff as Community Coordinator, received an invitation to speak on a webinar hosted by the National League of Cities (NLC) to provide a brief tutorial on how local governments can sign up to participate in...
September 23, 2026 | News, NS, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
Rail industry trade publication Railway Age published an article last week that reinforces the job-loss concerns BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference have raised since Day 1. BLET has taken the position that the “Jobs for Life” promise made by UP CEO Jim Vena is...
September 22, 2026 | BMWED, News, NS, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
Left, right, Democrat or Republican, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) continues to work across party lines to best represent its members and build opposition to the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. This month, representatives...
September 9, 2026 | 2-man Crews, FRA, News, Railroad Safety, Top News, UP
In two alarming incidents, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has found the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) in non-compliance with basic railroad safety rules. Railroad managers ordered two separate locomotive engineers to run trains without their assigned...
September 8, 2026 | News, NS, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
More opposition to the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger emerged recently, with additional rail unions joining the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition. The Transportation Communications Union (TCU/IAM) and IAM District 19, both part of the IAM Rail Division, announced...
September 4, 2026 | News, NS, STB, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are circulating a signed letter urging the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to consider the consequences of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Rail merger for workers. Representative Val Hoyle (D-OR) led the...
August 29, 2026 | News, NS, UP, UP-NS Merger
On August 24, the Stop the Rail Merger Coalition wrote a letter to President Trump outlining why it opposes the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger. The letter warns that the merger would reduce railroad competition, raise costs for American farmers,...
August 26, 2026 | News, NS, STB, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
The railroad industry, including rail labor, likes to throw around a lot of letters. There’s an “alphabet soup” of acronyms that frequently appear in industry and union news sites and publications, including this one — for example, AAR, ARU, BLET, CSXT, DOT, FRA, and...
August 25, 2026 | News, NS, STB, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
Last week, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) adopted a procedural schedule and timeline for consideration of the UP-NS merger application, but ordered the railroads to turn over “substantial” additional data by August 28. Importantly, STB said that release of the...
August 24, 2026 | News, NS, STB, Top News, UP, UP-NS Merger
The BLET last week led a coalition of rail labor unions in urging the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to immediately terminate the proposed Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger application before a full review can begin. In an August 19 joint filing, BLET and the...
