By Dennis R. Pierce
BLET National President
CLEVELAND, November 21 — As the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us, I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all BLET members, officers and staff for their hard work and dedication throughout the year.
I am thankful for the progress our Organization has achieved over the past 12 months, settling numerous contracts and protecting our existing agreements.
Our successful “Proud to be American, Proud to Be Union” campaign has been embraced by the membership and has helped to increase their pride in our Organization while elevating the public’s view of our Brotherhood. This campaign will continue in the months to come. I am pleased to announce for the first time that we will soon begin using our publications to highlight other proud American unions and the goods and services they provide, thereby helping our members to make choices as consumers to support American-made, Union-made products.
I am also thankful for our talented and dedicated Advisory Board. These gentlemen may not hear it often enough, but thank you for your service to the Brotherhood. As we are in the midst of our Triennial Election season, I am thankful for all of our outgoing and incoming Local Division officers. These Local Division officers are some of the hardest working individuals in the entire Brotherhood, and they deserve our respect and gratitude — not only during the holiday season — but all year long.
Also deserving of recognition and thanks are our staff at National Division headquarters in Cleveland, our National Legislative office in Washington, D.C., our BLET Auxiliary, and our officers and staff serving General Committees of Adjustment and State Legislative Boards throughout the country.
I am thankful of our National Mobilization Team and proud of the success they’ve had in reenergizing our membership with numerous campaigns throughout the year. As I write this, we are hard at work on plans to strengthen our Mobilization network while expanding our reach.
Finally, Thanksgiving can be an especially challenging time of year for BLET members. Many of you will find yourself in the cab of a locomotive or at an away-from-home terminal instead of at the dinner table with your children and family. Please join me in keeping all hardworking BLET members in our thoughts and prayers for a safe journey back home.
On behalf of the BLET Advisory Board, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.