Notes from the Desk of the President

The railway labor act gives us as railroad workers the right to organize and elect officers out of our own respective crafts under federal law. It is our Union. We have to man it. Article VI of the 1991 BLET national agreement PEB 219 gave the BLET the exclusive right to represent locomotive engineers. Yes, an engineer can be a member of the UTU instead of the BLET. But, that engineer does not have a voice for anything that might come up for a vote. Your vote and your participation is what makes us a labor organization. Sitting around the hotel crew room and discussing what's been going on doesn't amount to a hill of beans. It's just blowing off hot air. The only place anything is going to get done for engineers working in Longview zone 3 is at the lodge hall. Come to our monthly meetings and make a motion before the floor. If it gets seconded, then we have to vote on it at the next monthly meeting. If it passes, then I'll inform our local chairman of the change. A lot can get accomplished at the local level. I've seen it.