BLET to Hold Strike Authorization Vote
Preparations are under way for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) to poll members, who the union stresses “have been without a contract raise for nearly three years,” to authorize
Preparations are under way for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) to poll members, who the union stresses “have been without a contract raise for nearly three years,” to authorize
Since implementing its “Hi-Viz” attendance policy on Feb. 1, BNSF has been monitoring progress and making adjustments, some of which will take effect June 1, according to the Class I railroad. Unions so far are unimpressed.
Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” They also are very different from the labor union brothers and sisters they employ.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the SMART Transportation Division reported March 23 that they will “proceed as expeditiously as possible to arbitration” over BNSF’s Hi-Viz worker availability policy that took effect Feb. 1.
U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman on Feb. 22 blocked the BLET (Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen) and the SMART Transportation Division—the two unions opposed to BNSF’s planned Hi-Viz worker availability policy—from striking.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have filed motions for preliminary injunctions to halt BNSF’s and Metra’s vaccine mandates.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the Transportation Division of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART-TD) have filed suit against Amtrak over implementation of its COVID-19 vaccine policy.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the SMART Transportation Division (SMART–TD) have each filed Motions for Preliminary Injunctions against Norfolk Southern in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, “to stop the railroad from forcing locomotive engineers to work as conductors, and for disciplining those who don’t.”
Call it the Twilight Zone of reality when three rail labor unions embrace the convictions of extreme-right public figures Tucker Carlson (Fox News), Republican Governors Greg Abbott (Texas) and Ron DeSantis (Florida), and Republican Senators Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (Kentucky) and oppose vaccine mandates intended to protect society against the deadly COVID-19 virus and its Delta variant.
Leadership at the industry’s two largest operating-craft unions, the SMART-Transportation Division and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, have petitioned the Federal Railroad Administration to issue an Emergency Order regarding “the safety of all passenger rail crews and passengers.” The unions have also petitioned the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to enact a “No-Ride List” on passenger railroads.