BLE and Teamsters Merge

[kenneo]

CSX-DS

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[Anonymous]

Dear csx-dispatcher,
I'm sorry. I hadn't heard that the Teamsters even wanted to merge with the BLE. I thought you were speaking hypothetically. I guess there's a reason I'm not a rail analyst.[:)][:D]

-Daniel

[wabash1]

Ringer 246 around here it is the utu that holds and has always held the firemans agreement. and as far as spending all our time and money fighting it was the utu that tried to take us over ( hostile) and we was not left to many options. if we lost we would lose fighting was the stance we took. and we won. now we have won again and all the utu guys are shaking now. I have stood around and listen to the utu crap long enough,

the merger is going to make all railroad crafts handled by 1 union in which we have differant crafts and keeping the differant crafts. its been stated by the corperations they prefer working with the ble. we want to keep the crafts seperate as they should be. we want conductors and engineers on trains ,

the incentive is that the trains wont move with out engineers and trucks wont move with out driver. a strike threat would make this a very good tool in bargining. also the vote deadline was dec 4th so the results should be final now . ( if this sounds like i am jumping around i am going back reading then comminting) and 43 years of railservice. as what ? not that i want to bash you or that craft. just wondering. but if you have watch what has been going on the utu tried a hostile takeover we didnt budge we would have agreed to a merger but not at their terms. if the merger went through it should be a win win. but only time will tell. and we do have a option to end this merger in 2 years.

[Anonymous]

Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Members Approve Merger With Teamsters
Affiliation Takes Effect January 1

December 5, 2003

Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) have overwhelmingly voted to merge with the Teamsters.

BLE members approved the merger by an 81 percent to 19 percent margin in the United States and a 63 percent to 37 percent margin in Canada.

“Today, two great unions begin a partnership to strengthen our ability to represent workers across the transportation spectrum,” Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said. “The Teamsters have always had a vision for a seamless transportation union giving workers real power on the job and in the political arena. This historic merger brings us closer to our union’s vision.”

The BLE has about 32,000 active members in the United States, and about 4,000 in Canada. In joining the 1.4-million member Teamsters, the BLE members will become the centerpiece of the new Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division within a Teamsters Rail Conference. In Canada, a Teamsters Canada Rail Conference will be established.

“Together, we will continue to provide the BLE members with a powerful voice at work and in the political capitals of the U.S. and Canada. At the same time, our Teamster members look forward to the support of rail labor,” Hoffa said.

The merger is part of the Teamster’s broader effort to unite rail and transportation labor. Other AFL-CIO unions have contacted the Teamsters regarding possible mergers, and the Brotherhood of Maintenance Way Employees (BMWE) is currently in merger discussions with the Teamsters. The Teamsters have also forged a historic working agreement with Longshore unions.

[Anonymous]

Dear csx-dispatcher,
I really don't think the BLE and Teamsters will merge, at least not anytime soon. My reasons are thus:
1.) Trucking is the railroads' largest competitor, and vice-versa. If the two were to combine, the new union would probably have internal squabling and would be inneficient. But they said similar things about Penn-Central, and it happened.
2.) The two new groops it would be representing have broadly different needs. It would be like putting locomotive engineers and airline pilots in the same union.
3.) What incentives would they have to merge? It would seem to be more logical to maintain their seperation.
Having just said this, I feel obliged to point out that I am not an expert, nor am I a locomotive engineer (except in Train-Simulator), teamster, or anything else except a railfan which would put me in a good position to make this analysis, so really what I'm saying in this very long sentence is: it could happen. They said Penn-Central was less likely than a political union between the USA and USSR, or so I hear.

See you around the forum,
Daniel

[Anonymous]

wABASH 1 YOU ARE DOING WHAT THE RAILROADS AND OTHER SO CALLED MAJOR CORPORATIONS WANT Spend your time and money fighting amongst yourself and we can cram anything we want down your throat.

I retired from the UP (CNW) after 43 years and I was not thrilled with alot of the things that were done by the unions, but I did not jump to another orginization to represent me when things did not go my way.

Idon't know if you were in the BLE when the railroads started the featherbedding issue on fireman in the late 50's aand early 60' but, I remember all of the other crafts backing the engineers and fireman to keep these jobs.

In the last 20 years the BLE has been to much of a "ME TOO" attitude and (clause) in their contract.

You talk about blacballing well remember it is a two way street.

[Anonymous]

wABASH 1 YOU ARE DOING WHAT THE RAILROADS AND OTHER SO CALLED MAJOR CORPORATIONS SWANT.

[wabash1]

with this merger you will see a new rush of properganda from the utu. and why you ask ? Cause they are running scared. they tryed taking us over years ago and we stood up to them and then the teamsters came in to back us up. teamsters carried a strong rep in the day and still do. when i was a teamster ( i have not always been a railroader) we stuck together in railroading right now you cant get 2 guys to agree on anything. I know for a fact that the utu sent the men out recruiting i seen them they talked to me and i told them to take thier union and shove it. The utu dont even call them selfs a union anymore they are by their own terms a organization. I know what the ble has in store for the utu. and if things go right in a year or so there will be no more utu. and i have a few people i will black ball from our union.

the first properganda that always got me was utu saying ble wants engineer only crews there will be 2 engineers on a train. this is the biggest lie ever. it was the famous 1985 holloween agreement that the utu signed that created this. in fact they themselves forced everyone hired after 1985 to become a engineer. with everyone becomming a engineer why belong to a conductor orginazation. but the utu shot themselves in both feet and now is looking for someone else to blame and they picked the ble. they picked wrong.

the moral if you aint AFL-CIO you aint nothing.

[JoeKoh]

I hope it works out for you.I was in the same situation years ago.People in another state were making more $ per hr than we were doing the same job.and the way Csx is running right now from what Ive heard and read you'll need representation.
stay safe
Joe

[Anonymous]

What are your thoughts?

Too Big of a Union you think?

Think they could get anthing done?

I tell u what......Im with the ATDD-BLE (american train dispatchers dept.) and we havent had a contract in years. They dispatchers in Jacksonville make *** load of money compared to us. AND WE DO THE EXACT SAME THING!!!!! I just dont understand.