CLEVELAND, April 3 — Sonny Hall, President of the Transport Workers Union of America, demanded an apology from the American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association (ASLRRA) for a false and misleading public statement it made regarding passage of the Railroad Retirement & Survivors’ Improvement Act of 2001.
On March 28, ASLRRA issued a press release crediting James “Brokenrail” Brunkenhoefer, a legislative director for the United Transportation Union, for single-handedly securing passage of the bill. “Without Brokenrail, Railroad Retirement Reform would not have met with success,” ASLRRA President Frank K. Turner stated in the release.
Brother Hall, who is also President of the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department (TTD), responded to the statement by calling it “insulting and unacceptable.”
“Yes, James Brunkenhoefer did his part, but it was no more or less important that the part played by every rail labor organization,” President Hall wrote in an April 1 letter to ASLRRA President Turner. “And let me state further, for the record, had it not been for the overall support of the AFL-CIO and the TTD Rail Division, of which the UTU and Brokenrail are not members, the Railroad Retirement Reform would have died on the vine.
“I am fully aware of the special relationship that exists (between ASLRRA and UTU), but ASLRRA should not believe that the members of the AFL-CIO will allow this special relationship to result in ASLRRA slapping every AFL-CIO rail organization in the face. You owe Rail Labor and the AFL-CIO an apology.”