Although it may be hard to believe, the
Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes will conduct its 43rd Quadrennial Convention in
just a few weeks. It is amazing how fast time goes by. It seems just a short time ago that
we left the 42nd Quadrennial Convention united as a Brotherhood, ready to take on the
railroads and obtain a good, fair agreement. It was at the 42nd Quadrennial Convention in
1994 that we conducted our first ever Solidarity Education Day, when we suspended normal
business at the Thursday session so that we could pick each other's brains and develop the
best possible plan to unite all levels of the Brotherhood and do whatever we had to do in
order to reverse the impact of years of Reagan/Bush anti-labor, pro-management government.
Just as the rest of labor had suffered real wage loss, a massive deterioration in working
conditions and benefits, in an environment of soaring profitability and productivity, our
membership was reeling from the impact of PEB 219. It was at that Convention that we
passed Resolution 42 -- telling the world that we will not simply be crushed by backward
government, unfair anti-labor courts and bad contracts without fighting back as our
forefathers fought. It was at that Convention that we as a Brotherhood joined Labor Party
Advocates, which subsequently became the U.S. Labor Party -- letting the major parties
know that if they wouldn't adopt a pro-labor agenda that Labor would find a political
party that would. And it was at that Convention that we, at all levels of the Brotherhood,
from the local lodge level to the system level to the international level put together the
best fight we could -- developing the blueprint for the round of bargaining that ended
with the best contract our members have seen in two decades.
And now, once again, our best and brightest will meet to do the business of the
Brotherhood -- to develop another plan to bring us into the future. Momentous events have
occurred over the past four years. Perhaps the biggest change that has occurred is the
election of the Sweeney/Trumka/Chavez team to lead the AFL-CIO. The BMWE was and is a
major supporter of the new leadership team and I was fortunate enough to become a member
of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.
The Sweeney team has changed the face of organized labor, much in the way that the
delegates to the 42nd Quadrennial Convention changed the face of the BMWE. Recognizing
that all workers were suffering from the same problems that we in the BMWE suffered -- a
sea of deteriorating real wages, working conditions and benefits -- the Sweeney team (of
which the BMWE is a proud part) awoke the sleeping lion that is the U.S. Labor movement.
Functioning in a creative and brilliant manner, the Sweeney/Trumka/Chavez-Thompson team
led countless demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and brought the Labor movement back. John
Sweeney became the first AFL-CIO President ever to testify for Rail Labor at our
Presidential Emergency Boards. John Sweeney, Rich Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson
coordinated the entire might of the AFL-CIO behind our legislative and bargaining efforts
to make certain that our members obtained the best contract possible. And we struck a
responsive chord with them, just as they struck a responsive chord with us because we were
all involved in the same fight and had the same objectives. The new cry of the U.S. Labor
movement was to listen to the membership, learn from them and then serve them. This is
true in the BMWE and it is true in the AFL-CIO.
This doesn't mean that the forces of corporate greed have been sleeping or that
backward forces within the U.S. Labor Movement and even the Rail Labor Movement have not
fought back. They have fought in Congress, in the Courts and at the various agencies to
increase their profits and executive compensation at our expense. When we win in one arena
they go to their friends in high places to reverse what we have won.
We have watched the courts simply manipulate law in order to decide cases against
Labor. We have suffered from the impact of the decisions of the STB who have granted the
railroads the right to abrogate collective bargaining agreements, even recently negotiated
ones while they allow the railroad industry to become dominated by monopolistic railroads.
They grant merger authority and support such decisions even when it cripples whole regions
of the country and brings billions of dollars of harm to the U.S. economy.
The STB does this knowing the history of the members of its predecessor agency, the
Interstate Commerce Commission -- a history in which former ICC Commissioners and key
staff obtained incredibly lucrative positions with rail management after rendering
decisions hostile to labor and supportive of railroads while they serve as public servants
with the ICC and the STB. And as a result of this our members on the BNSF have suffered
and our members on CSX, NS and Conrail -- on CN/IC may well suffer.
Although we have come a long way and have won many fights, we must still put our heads
together at this Convention and come up with a plan for the next four years. We must
develop a plan to preserve Railroad Retirement, obtain a good contract, and to stop the
railroads from being able to use the courts, Congress and the agencies to take from us
what we win at the bargaining table.
And so I welcome each and every one of you to the 43rd Quadrennial Convention of the
BMWE. You are the Union -- its most important asset. We will meet again, plan together and
walk away from this Convention united with an understanding of what role we each must play
in order to provide better lives for our families. And we will have the full support of
the AFL-CIO. |