WASHINGTON, D.C. — The allegation by the unaffiliated United Transportation Union (UTU) that Locomotive Engineers crossed a Teamster picket line in Laredo July 3 is false and insupportable.
Contrary to the smear posted by UTU, not a single member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers crossed an informational picket established by Teamsters Local 657 to protest the use of a low-wage, nonunion subcontractor by labor scofflaw Union Pacific.
Our beef is not with the hardworking members of the UTU, many of whom also honored the picket line. Rather, it is with those UTU officers whose bitterness toward, and history of raiding, a fellow union motivates them to try to co-opt the Teamsters into their misguided rivalry.
Dividing workers amongst themselves is the most serious violation of trade union principles imaginable. UTU’s reckless charge is a slander directed at the BLE and an insult to the Teamsters Union.