It is true that Grand Trunk, a CN property in the U.S., is still outstanding. And, of course, Amtrak remains a thorn in our side. The Delaware &Hudson (D&H), a Canadian Pacific property, has not been resolved and the CC&P is open. We are still in litigation around major disputes involving the travel allowance and the Conrail wage COLA and in arbitration over various aspects of the CDL. But for the vast bulk of our members, the round is over and we have much to be proud of.

Sometimes the seemingly never ending struggle between labor and management makes it difficult to look back, celebrate a bit and recognize the successes when they occur. With Railroad Retirement Occupational Disability appearing to be winding down with a positive result for the parties, I would like to congratulate all of us for the dedication and commitment of the past several years and look back on what we’ve done and how we’ve done it.

After the devastation of PEB 219, we all realized that we had to change our direction--to do things differently than we had done them before. At that time, Grand Lodge decided we must democratize our operation, mobilize our membership into the battle, develop the best strategic planning we were capable of, attempt to unite rail labor while developing and deepening our ties with the rest of the labor movement, use as much of our resources as necessary to win, try to put our most talented people in positions where they could make a difference, challenge the railroads and sometimes the government and work harder than we ever had before.

Based on this, Grand Lodge committed massive resources to the PEB 221 and 222 struggles on Conrail and Amtrak. With Grand Lodge’s commitment of massive resources in conjunction with key input from the committees involved, our brothers and sisters on Conrail and Amtrak did better than PEB 219. On Conrail the results were not good, but unquestionably better than 219. On Amtrak our members actually obtained a decent contract. This was a trial-by-fire of our new way of doing business by Grand Lodge, and it was successful.

From that point forward, BMWE went from a defensive to an offensive mode, with Grand Lodge providing support and some direction to the committees, while the committees provided full input into the overall game plan--all with the purpose of obtaining the best possible agreement during the ‘95 round and protecting ourselves from attacks by a Republican Congress and sometimes weak-kneed Administration.

We wrote the book for rail labor from that point forward. Decision making became collective with the general chairmen and system officers from all committees playing the central role in the bargaining round while Grand Lodge Officers and Staff continued to provide support, arbitration and litigation expertise and strategic and political direction. From national informational picketing, building seizures and local striking to explaining our plight to the politicians, from providing all of the input we could to the New Voices Campaign of the AFL-CIO to internal strategic planning meetings, strategic planning meetings with the rest of rail labor and with Rich Trumka, the BMWE was everywhere upping the ante.

And, we had incremental and increasing success as a result of our efforts. When Conrail attempted to discipline 27 BMWE brothers whom Conrail claimed led a safety strike against Conrail’s horrendous safety record and practices, Grand Lodge was able to call upon all of rail labor to threaten unspecified action causing a withdrawal of the disciplinary charges. In other parts of the country, Grand Lodge was able to provide support and strategic direction to general committees and obtain some successful results and expedited arbitration.

In Canada, Grand Lodge worked closely with Canadian vice presidents and system officers providing resources to assist in their strike and in their bargaining round. Once again, Grand Lodge worked with those vice presidents and system officers to make certain that we were able to assist in the decision-making process related to the strategic direction in Canada when called upon.

As we all know, Sweeney/Trumka/Chavez-Thompson won, and I gained a seat on the AFL-CIO Executive Council. Since then, the new AFL-CIO has been providing support to us, whether it’s assisting in obtaining a fair PEB and PEB report, coordinating the fight for fair treatment of our members on UP and SP during that merger and for our members on Conrail, CSX and NS in the event the acquisition is successful, helping us get released from mediation when there is an obvious deadlock or following Grand Lodge direction in Congress when Conrail attempted to provide inferior job security arrangements to our members there, thus making certain that our Conrail membership received a superior sub-pay plan (or Feb. 7 protection if Conrail did not sweeten the sub-pay plan enough), or assisting us in numerous other ways. As the AFL-CIO responds to all of rail labor, the division within rail labor makes it more difficult for the AFL-CIO to provide even greater assistance. This problem of rail labor division is one we must confront directly in the near future.

The results our internal unity and our overall plan gave us included new prestige and clout and a collective bargaining agreement in the United States which was voted on by about 65 percent of those who could vote, nearly 90 percent favorable. And on other roads like the Soo Line, where the local agreement was based largely on the national agreement, we received even larger percentages voting on the contract and larger percentages of those voting in favor of the agreement. This huge turnout was a testament to the membership, the system committees and to Grand Lodge Officers and Staff and the programs Grand Lodge has inaugurated over the past several years in response to PEB 219. No other craft can boast such a large percentage of its membership partaking in any mail ballot vote.

And so, as we reach agreement on the SP and possibly on Railroad Retirement Occupational Disability, and despite the struggles that we are still in, it is time for us to look at what we have accomplished and I congratulate all involved for a superb effort. At the same time, I must caution everyone that we can’t rest on our laurels. We will need even greater unity next time and much greater clout, as the railroads will be ready if we simply attempt to repeat what we did last time. A new approach means that we may have to make even greater changes in order to provide the best for our members, but I know from the past several years, BMWE will rise to the occasion.