(The Associated Press circulated the following on April 26, 2011.)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A former Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad manager is suing the company’s Canadian owner, saying executives should have honored a preexisting deal that promised he could keep his union seniority.
Clyde Mittleider filed the federal lawsuit against Canadian Pacific Railway alleging breach of contract in U.S. District Court in Sioux Falls on Friday.
In the lawsuit, Mittleider said his position in Sioux Falls was eliminated in March and that he was denied an opportunity to return to “the ranks” with a job in Brookings. DM&E executives promised that if the union denied his seniority in an arbitration hearing, he would be made whole financially if he chose to leave management, he said.
Mittleider, who was hired by the DM&E in 1987 as a conductor and brakeman, was a supervisor in Huron in 2002 when DM&E purchased the assets of I&M Rail Link Railroad and renamed it IC&E.
The company offered Mittleider a position as a superintendent in Mason City, Iowa, which he accepted under the condition that he could keep his seniority. He said Robert Brownell, then a vice-president, and Kevin Schieffer, DM&E’s president, made that promise.
Mittleider was promoted in 2004 to assistant chief transportation officer and moved to Sioux Falls, which prompted the United Transportation Union to challenge whether he could retain his seniority status. He lost his rights during that arbitration hearing, but said that Brownell and Schieffer assured him he would be made whole for the loss of any seniority benefits.
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