(Editor’s Note: The following message from BLET National President Dennis Pierce appears in the Summer 2011 issue of the Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Journal. The quarterly magazine is available on the BLET website: www.ble-t.org/pr/journal)
By Dennis R. Pierce
BLET National President
One short year ago, I became National President of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. When I assumed the Presidency, I made several commitments to the membership, and I would like to share with you our progress towards fulfilling those commitments in this edition of the Journal.
A year ago, I committed that the officers of the National Division would be visible in the field, meeting with members and officers at all levels. In addition to our attendance at regional meetings, I have attended nearly two dozen Local Division meetings all across the country in the past 12 months. My goal in attending these meetings is to hear directly from the membership on the issues that are important to you, and to share with you the progress on issues we are working on at the National Division. The information that I have garnered from these meetings has been invaluable to the National Division in our everyday activities.
I have also been honored to attend five General Committee meetings during the past year: one on BNSF, one on Union Pacific, one on Canadian National (the Wisconsin Central), one on CSX/Conrail Shared Assets and, most recently, the quadrennial meeting of the Canadian Pacific General Committee. Those meetings were also valuable in that the Local Chairmen present were able to better define the specific struggles that they face daily on each property. While the individual details vary from property to property, it is apparent to me that we face many of the same issues on all railroads across the country. Much like the information that we obtained at Local Division meetings, the information that we have gathered at these GCA meetings better prepares the National Division to assist the General Committees throughout our Brotherhood.
The Legislative Department of our Union is also very important. In the past 12 months, I have had the pleasure of attending State Legislative Board meetings in Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. The BLET’s presence in the state houses across the country, as well as in Washington, D.C., is more important now than ever, as workers and the organizations that represent them are under attack at every turn. Strong State Legislative Boards are central to that presence, and meeting face-to-face with the officers of the State Boards has helped us to better understand how the National Division can assist in each State’s endeavors.
In all of the meetings that I have attended, I have maintained a common theme: that we must motivate our membership to become more involved in their Union. I have been joined in this effort by First Vice President Lee Pruitt, National Secretary Treasurer Bill Walpert and the other officers of the Advisory Board. If attendance at union meetings on the part of National Division officers increases participation, then we have made steps towards that goal. As time permits, the officers of the National Division will continue to meet directly with BLET members.
One of the other methods that the National Division has focused on in our push for greater membership participation is the increased support and activity of our Mobilization networks. One of the biggest testaments to the power of mobilization came late last year, during our first ever rank and file election of officers. Our Mobilization networks worked hard, leading a non-partisan effort to encourage members to participate and exercise their right to cast a vote. Largely due to those efforts, almost 40% of our membership returned a ballot. This effort was a true grassroots effort where members contacted members, increasing participation in the election process. We continue to expand on our mobilization efforts with Mobilization workshops being conducted at all four Regional Meetings this year. This Brotherhood belongs to the members, and through their participation they make the Union stronger.
One of the other commitments that I made when I took office was to push hard for the changes that were needed to strengthen our rules on internal governance. During our Second National Convention last October, several resolutions that I submitted were adopted into Brotherhood law, making our rules more direct and more transparent. My goal is to ensure that all officers and members fully understand the seriousness of knowing and following the rules that have been established, to ensure that every member can be confident that our Union is on the right track and that every dues dollar is spent in an appropriate manner. The new edition of our Bylaws is now being printed, and all of the improvements on internal governance adopted by the Delegates in session will soon be distributed to the field. Consistency in the way we provide representation and assistance is key to keeping the Brotherhood moving in the right direction, and our revised Bylaws are the cornerstone of that consistency.
Finally, I committed to the membership when I took office that I would support and expand our Education and Training Department. It is clear that to be a strong Union, we must have strong officers and members. That strength is best established when all involved are provided with the tools that they need to be most effective, and the best way to provide those tools is through regular education and training. Since taking office, I have attended three of our Education and Training classes, one being a Legislative Representative class in Washington, D.C., and the other two being Local Chairmen classes in Silver Spring, Md., and Springfield, Ill. It is important for our officers to know that the National Division supports them as they work to represent our membership, and my attendance at these classes was to reinforce my strong commitment to that end.
Although our efforts to be in the field with the members and to encourage member participation have kept us very busy, it has not come at the expense of the day-to-day efforts of the Union. We continue to streamline departments and functions in our Cleveland and D.C. offices, and we work diligently to provide necessary assistance to our General Committees, State Boards, and Local Divisions when the need arises. We face challenges on every front from the carriers and from anti-Union politicians. Beating back those challenges requires that we become a leaner, meaner machine, and we will build on the successes of the past year to refine and strengthen our operations at every level, moving our Union progressively into the future.