BLET President Mark Wallace addresses the crowd in the June 17 open session of the Regional Meeting in Daytona Beach.
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Daytona Beach, the site of last week’s BLET Eastern Regional Meeting, is known as the “world center of racing.” Good slogan and an appropriate meeting site, because the action reported on at the BLET union meeting was comparable to the breakneck speed that can regularly be seen at the nearby Daytona International Speedway.
Mark Wallace, who became BLET National President on May 1, summed it up in his State of the Union address this way, “I’ve been your National President for nearly 50 days, and in those 50 days, we’ve been moving fast.”
In the past two months, the BLET held a major strike at NJ Transit, the first in 42 years at the nation’s third-largest commuter railroad, and settled a Class I contract for members at CSX, along with new agreements at other carriers. Wallace has also launched a campaign to oppose moves by Class I railroads to break with long-standing past practice and use trains operated by Mexican nationals to cross the border and operate in the United States, taking work away from U.S.-based railroad workers.
“Let me be clear: we are just getting started,” Wallace said. “Under this administration, we are going to be proactive, not reactive.”
In addition to being proactive, the BLET will adopt a member-first agenda. “The vision for the BLET under my leadership is simple: Create unity by taking action. Make our members’ issues relevant… loudly and clearly. Operate from the bottom up, not the top down.”
Wallace is a second-generation locomotive engineer and union leader. He follows in the footsteps of his father, Ray Wallace, who was General Chairman of the BLET’s Norfolk Southern-Southern Lines General Committee of Adjustment for many years. His mother, Janie Wallace, was a member of the former BLE Grand International Auxiliary for many years, serving the national chapter as Guide. Both were in attendance on Tuesday.
“My dad had a phrase he repeated often, and still asks the question today: ‘What have we done for the membership? What about the working man?’ I heard my dad ask that question so many times growing up, and even then, I knew it wasn’t rhetorical. It was a challenge. A call to action. And now, 24 years later, that same message echoes through my own leadership.”
The regional meeting was attended by approximately 400 members and their families. A gallery of photos from the opening ceremony can be found here.
A BLET family: Mark Wallace’s father, Ray (left), was a General Chairman of the NS-Southern Lines GCA for many years. His mother, Janie was a long-time Grand International Auxiliary member and served as Guide.