CLEVELAND, May 26 — Bill Walpert, National Secretary-Treasurer of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, has been unanimously appointed to serve as a Trustee of the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (NRRIT).
All Rail Labor Presidents, representing the 13 labor organizations whose members are covered by the Railroad Retirement system, appointed him unanimously on May 13, 2011.
NST Walpert will begin serving immediately as a shadow trustee, a non-voting member of the Trust. He will become a full Trustee when he assumes the vacancy created by current Trustee Walt Barrows, Secretary-Treasurer of the Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS), who has been nominated by President Obama to serve as the Labor Member of the Railroad Retirement Board.
The NRRIT was established by the Railroad Retirement and Survivor’s Improvement Act of 2001, which was signed into law on December 21, 2001.
The purpose of the Trust is to manage and invest Railroad Retirement Assets. The Trust invests the assets of the Railroad Retirement Account into a diversified investment portfolio in the same manner as those of private sector retirement plans. Prior to the Act, investment of Railroad Retirement Account assets was limited to U.S. government securities.
The Trust oversees investments currently totaling approximately $25 billion.
BLET National President Dennis Pierce congratulated NST Walpert on his appointment.
“Only those individuals with experience and expertise in the management of financial investment and pension plans are eligible to hold Trustee positions, and Brother Walpert certainly fits the bill,” President Pierce said. “He has served our Brotherhood faithfully as chief financial officer for nearly a decade now, and I congratulate him on this prestigious appointment.”
NST Walpert was first elected to the organization’s top financial office in 2001, and was reelected by acclamation in 2006. He was elected a third time in 2010 by a wide majority of members in the first rank-and-file vote of BLET members in the 148-year history of the Organization. Brother Walpert was first elected to the BLET’s Advisory Board as a National Vice President in 1996. He joined the BLET on November 1, 1973, and is a member of Division 604 in Sherman, Texas.
As National Secretary-Treasurer of the BLET, he has custody of all funds of the National Division and has supervision over the financial and record department personnel of the National Division. He is under direction of the Executive Committee in regard to matters pertaining to his duties.
The Board is comprised of seven Trustees, three selected by railroad labor unions and three by railroad companies. The seventh Trustee is an independent Trustee selected by the other six Trustees.
More information on the Trust is available on the Railroad Retirement Board website: www.rrb.gov/mep/nrrit.asp.