By Dennis R. Pierce
BLET National President
CLEVELAND, October 14 — This month’s BLET Newsletter devotes primary coverage to our ongoing and yet to be resolved dispute with the National Carrier’s Conference Committee over the current round of bargaining. As you all know, the deadline for us to have the right to exercise self help came perilously close to lapsing before President Obama signed an Executive Order on October 6th appointing a Presidential Emergency Board to hear the dispute and issue recommendations. Like all of you, the National Division was prepared to exercise self help in the form of a strike, but the Executive Order triggered additional steps of the Railway Labor Act delaying our right to do so.
Although the Carriers have given us little choice but to exercise self help when and where permissible to settle our dispute, all members should understand any decision as serious as this one must not be taken lightly. That is why it was important to poll the members on the involved railroads to determine their decision on the question of striking. As Chairman of BLET National Wage Committee, my primary objective is to reach a voluntary settlement in this bargaining round. The other members of our Team, First Vice President Lee Pruitt, Vice President Willard Knight, and General Chairmen Jim Louis, Tony Smith and Pat Williams were all in agreement on this objective. In fact, the members of the National Wage Committee have each participated in on property negotiations that led to voluntary agreements, and more importantly, to voluntary agreements that the membership have ratified. So we certainly have a team in place that can get the job done.
That has not been possible to this point, and for that reason, I asked all members to vote “Yes” on the strike authorization question, so the National Division could move forward with a clear mandate. The vote also sent a message to all watching that BLET’s democratic principles, which place important decision making power in the membership’s hands, truly do work.
I am proud to say that we received an overwhelming response in that polling. Ninety seven percent (97%) of those who took the time to participate voted to strike. As in any quest for voter turnout, I must thank those of you who are part of your property’s Mobilization Network. This BLET network is perhaps the strongest in all of rail labor and the level of participation that BLET achieves on important issues is due in large part to your grass roots efforts to encourage your Brothers and Sisters to vote. I have often said that unionism is not a spectator sport, and I am very proud of our membership for taking the time to participate in this important vote at this even more critical point in time.
There are many reasons we are at impasse with the Carriers, in this bargaining round, and I would like to touch on just of few of them again. As you know by now, working class Americans have been under a relentless attack in the workplace for some time now. The Carrier’s demands for concessions in our Health and Welfare benefits are no different. That is painfully obvious when you consider that the Carriers have never argued an inability to pay for our insurance benefits. Quite the opposite, the Carriers are making record profits. Their push for concessions is for one reason, to increase those profits at the expense of the working class employees that BLET and the other Coalition unions represent.
This shameful push by the Carriers to make what is yours theirs comes at a time when working class Americans are under attack across the board. It started with the public sector workers, with States and municipalities using budget shortfalls to justify reducing salaries and benefits for state and city employees. Although the Carriers cannot make the same argument, they are piggybacking on the same mentality. They insist that the employees go backwards financially, for the sole purpose of advancing their own profits. It is apparent to me that BLET and the Rail Labor Bargaining Coalition (RLBC) could have reached a voluntary settlement in this round if not for the Carrier’s refusal to drop its disgraceful demand for concessions, but that has yet to happen.
I have stated since becoming BLET National President that I would not agree to the Carrier’s demands for concessions, and that is why I felt compelled to ask for a yes vote on the question of striking. Now that the membership has spoken loud and clear, you can trust that BLET’s position in this battle will not waiver. Although no one can predict the final outcome in this fight, to preserve our standard of living and way of life, I can guarantee you that BLET and the Teamsters Rail Conference will continue to put every ounce of our energy into the fight. For now, that energy is going into making our case to Presidential Emergency Board 243.
In the meantime, please work even harder to make your Mobilization Networks and Strike Committees stronger. Again, while our first choice is to reach a voluntary settlement, no such settlement will be reached if it includes the concessions that the Carriers demand. If no settlement is reached or an agreement is not imposed by December 6, 2011, then BLET and the other involved rail unions will again reach the point where self help may be legal and — more importantly — necessary. I trust that you will all stand with me in unison, if we reach that point, where yet again your support and participation will be vital to our success.