IBT General President Sean O’Brien: “Our members are changing the game. Setting the standard. Improving the lives of their fellow Teamsters all across the country.”
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Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien addressed BLET members during a rousing speech at the union’s Eastern Regional Meeting. “The BLET — and the entire Teamsters Rail Conference — isn’t just raising the bar for railroaders,” O’Brien said. “Our members are changing the game. Setting the standard. Improving the lives of their fellow Teamsters all across the country.”
In his remarks, the Teamsters leader talked about the importance of cultivating the upcoming generation of union leaders. He also explained how the Teamsters’ Strike and Defense Fund helped BLET members during their recent strike at NJ Transit, paying members $1,000 a week while on strike. He also stressed that having a strike fund with hundreds of millions in the bank and an international union with more than a billion dollars in assets helps to get contract settlements without striking because companies know the union has the resources to back the strike threat.
President O’Brien pledged to assist BLET in its fight to preserve American jobs at the U.S. southern border and to fight back against plans to allow trains to be operated by Mexican-nationals in the United States.
He also discussed how earlier this year, the Teamsters helped facilitate meetings between BLET and BMWED officials and the White House to help keep numerous Railroad Retirement Board field offices open in the face of cuts by DOGE.
“Those meetings would not have happened if we hadn’t worked on both sides of the aisle to protect, preserve and improve working conditions for our members,” O’Brien said. “But we can’t accept recent victories. We have to look at what’s ahead of us and keep our foot on the gas. We have to hold employers and politicians accountable.”
Also making presentations on behalf of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters were Fred Zuckerman, Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer, and Mike Smith, Director of the Teamsters Rail Conference.
In his remarks that immediately followed O’Brien’s speech, GST Zuckerman described how payments from IBT’s $350 million Strike and Defense Fund were made available “on day one” to BLET members during their strike at NJ Transit. “It gave them the confidence to know that they would be able to stay out as long as possible,” Zuckerman said. “And they were successful in obtaining the raises necessary to bring them close to parity with other passenger train engineers in the area.”
Rail Director Smith talked about his experience walking the picket line with BLET members during their strike at NJ Transit in May. “We are Teamsters. We are rail. And we are unstoppable,” he said.
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From left: David Estes, Gary Best, Fred Zuckerman, and Mark Wallace
Mike Smith, Director of the Teamsters Rail Conference