 |
|
From the Local Chairman,
10/18/2004
TO ALL CURRENT AND FUTURE MEMBERS OF THE BLE&T DIVISION 34
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I had the joy of reading a letter today, which I think was supposed to be a shot to me. I am not really sure due to the fact that I think the author was trying to impress us with his superior use of the queens english as well as his unbelievable ability to reflect on historical facts. First, lets establish the initial fact. That "widely distributed" publication this guy refers to was a newsletter to dues paying BLE&T 34 members. His members felt the need to yet again steal something that wasn't theirs to begin with. Once a thief always a thief. Frankly, if you are like me, what this organization ever did or didn't do doesn't matter to me one bit. I mean if he wants to quote history, explain the "halloween agreement" and the need to ratify that one in the urgency it was performed. Explain to all of us the need to establish a second class worker yet again in the 2001 RCO agreement. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. All of you who know me know that I am the first to admit that I am not the "sharpest knife" in the drawer. I was taught many years ago that a person either "leads, follows, or gets the f*** out of the way". Any challenges I have and will continue to lodge at the other side is that in all those years of data that the author feels the need to expose, he didn't say anything about him or any of his peers efforts to enhance the quality of anyones life, aside from the fact that he was proud of seeing someone carry a sign. Since I joined this company, I have seen substandard contracts that their side ran to complete thus lowering everyones standard of living. I guess the mental state of these folks is that if they can't get it take it away from anyone else by agreeing to less. I suppose by his comment about my complaining about being forced to become an APE, that I should kiss his butt for the mere priviledge that people like him gave me by taking away my rights to be what I choose to be. I do have a slight adjustment I must make to correct a wrong. I looked up scab in Websters and it is an inapproriate word for the acts these people have committed against our brother engineers. Maybe self rightous, over exuberant thieves would be a better fit. It is those who represent the mindset of the International of this outfit that are the spreaders of fertilizer. Most of our local brothers and sisters in Columbus, regardless of union affiliation are not to blame for the mess we have. We have a great working relationship with a fellow UTU counterpart in working toward better standards within our terminal. There are those, however, that would do all they can to derail that comraderee. Several days ago we were asked to attend a meeting with the General Manager over many issues. Would you believe that an officer from the other side recommended that in order to keep jobs in the terminal, he wanted to make sure that the RCO trainers, and two students keep thier position in order to protect four positions in the yard. How little they care about you. What about getting rid of the damn things that they supported to take your jobs, and put four engineers back on? It doesn't fit their agenda. After all, Tony Ingram himself said that RCO's would be eliminated from terminals that they weren't productive for. They didn't hear that one, they chose not to attend that meeting either. As far as what I was doing in 81/82, I was finishing my second tour as a BCT/AIT instructor for Air Defense Systems in Fort Bliss Texas. Little more than a year away from my Grenada and Just Cause phase of my military career. While I never "watched" anyone hold a picket sign for me, I have spent almost twenty years of my life learning team building. I have learned that there are those who choose not to become team players and they must be ignored until such time as they choose to become part of the working fix rather than expecting everyone else to carry their weight. The great people I have the priveledge to represent are part of the team that works for dynamics not worrying about which thief can best steal their money. Those who choose not to be part of any solution, I represent as directed by the position, but mostly ignore their rhetorical jiberish. This guy is a spin man that would have us all believe that he represents all that is pure. My good book says that we will know men by the fruits of their labor. I have seen this guys results, that is why I am where I am, and proud to have voted for a change in direction last January in allowing the Teamsters a chance to change the way these two "thundercats" negotiate contracts. I hope you all noticed the comment about the NCCC. I have been told that Tony Ingram has met on at least two seperate occasions to get a "feel" for how Don Hahs would react to the ellimination of road conductors and allow engineers to use remotely controlled devises to throw switches. He has stated his defiant objection in all occasions. Here is a guy that watched these dues paid thieves take away work from his own members. He had every right to shove this one back at them. That would have affected each and every one of us. He chose the high road. Many new hires ask me, which union should I join? I will tell you as I tell them. Your dues that you must pay due to a closed shop agreement are going to organizations that both have issues of trustworthy deficiency. You need to look at local representation. Terry Forson is a good man. He genuinly cares, as I do, for his members. He does have one distict problem that I don't. He has members that constantly try to run the direction of the local as they see fit. These are backseat LC's that couldn't win the popular vote on their own so they "bully" their point thru other sources. I feel for him and wish him the best of luck. In the meantime, I pledge him my support in resolving any problems in the terminal that need addressed. Lastly, as far as the challenge to debate the facts with this guy, I would love to discuss issues germain to our terminal now and any recommended solutions to them. I was attacked in that meeting I reffered to earlier by a local leader, from their side, because we don't have any problems in the yard. I was told that we don't need any quality of life proposals (4/3) because things are great the way they are. I suppose that is true if you are old enough to hold any job you want. What about the youngest member? Are they destined to suffer until older members die? I am for a proactive stance to the issues we face. From what I hear from fellow brothers and sisters, so are you. Rather than the author, who by the way doesn't have a clue what our problems currently are, offering lip service to our realtime problems, Terry and I are working hard to secure all our issues. Maybe this "under-educated and ill-informed" person needs to enjoy his remaining days on the payroll of his dues paying members, before he returns to the real working world. Maybe he will be lucky and daddy will have another job waiting on him after this one. Have a great day.
Jeff Scott BLE&T 34 Local Chairman 08/12/2004
I just had the misfortune of reading the UTU's latest letter of spin. It had to be written by Brokennuffer or whatever his name is. I think it has something to do with a missing orifice. He is the only guy who demonstrates the talents to write such a heap of garbage. The letter I refer to is the one titled "are teamsters eying rail retirement assets?" (click here for article). In his latest version of "panic in the process of extinction" , he states that under "truck driver" ownership of the teamsters, they will save the almost 400,000 retired truck drivers using our fund. He also states that as told by the RRB there is enough money, barring a problem to pay 22 years without a hitch. Did you get that? How many of us will be able to collect under that program within 22 years? How many of us really believe that the RRB will be around when we are retirement age? Look folks, all I KNOW is this, the scabs that run that soon (thank God) defunct organization MADE me be an APE (all purpose employee), LOCKED me in to a 75% rate on the extra board for life, established a second class worker AGAIN through the 1 June 2001 agreement so they could claim ownership of the RCO's, and have intentionaly attacked former UTU members that crossed over by calling them "uneducated" and attacking their life insurance just within the last several months here in Columbus. Forgive me folks for not practicing what I preach. I know that I have asked for temperence during these trying times. But now my line in the sand has been crossed. I am fed up with the practices of these jerks who place themselves in the high moral seat of railroad protectors. They are a scouriless group of flesh eating demons that MUST be eliminated from the face of exsistance. I am now asking all of you to do whatever you feel comfortable in doing to contribute to their demise. Recruit the masses. Help the new hires to understand what they are actually allowed to do as far as representation is concerned. They are being brainwashed into believing that they have to affiliate themselves to these people for fear of retaliation or even separation. Enough is enough. The more I watch these folks the more they remind me of a pedifile in a politically correct world. The world stands by and allows improprieties afraid of predjudicing an inferior class of human. No more. Stand with me and lets defeat this beast and save as many as we can. After all what have they done? Have they gotten any of our members off disciplinary actions, at all, let alone several times? Have they initiated anything? We have the local, 4/3, carey rock, the paying of setback for a3 turns, and soon to come a road proposal for members throughout the terminal. We have met numerous times with leaders in this company to strike a better quality of life. We have had several conversations with Tony Ingram over absenteeism and rest day programs. We have had meetings with each of the division managers that we work on and have made life better at Walbridge and Willard due to our negotiations. Have we offered these services to only our members? All have benefited by these actions although only we have taken the initiative to act. And hold your heads high folks, you are the only one of these two that are an affiliated member of the AFL-CIO. Remember the other organization is holding out to avoid sanctions because of their attempts to "educate the uneducated" by raiding our union and attempting to bankrupt us a few years ago. Well no more. It is time to answer the constant bombardment of misinformation coming from this rogue union. The only thing they understand, like the pimps they prostitute for, is a loss of money. Recruit their members and stab their very heart that will soon beat no more. Thanks so much for your constant support through all of this. It means more than you will ever know. No matter how mad you get over all this hype, please stay focused on the job at hand. PLEASE be safe. While I am concerned with our numbers for what it gives to us in collateral leverage, I am more concerned with your health and the condition you go home to your families in. This is already a terminal to be proud to belong, lets make it an equally proud union to be a part of.
Fraternally,
Jeff
06/12/2004 Brothers/Sisters,
Summer is finally here. We have enjoyed a lot of great weather. Now the hot stuff is here for a while. With that, we must look out for each other. In the military, we called it the thousand mile stare. Watch out for your fellow brothers and sisters for overheating. Lots of things contribute to getting into trouble heat wise. Just keep an eye on each other, help each other out if they appear to be getting into trouble. I want all of you to know that your safe working is not going unnoticed. First, I know that people other than our BLE&T members read this website. At first that bothered me, but not now. Maybe they read it to "spy" on our goings on. Maybe they want to be one of us. Maybe they are even waiting for me to hang myself in writing .......(if you are...don't hold your breath). Whatever the reason welcome and I hope you learn something about what great employees do and how they operate. Folks, Bill and I just attended a local chairman conference in Huntington last week. Many kudos were paid to this great terminal and its employees by Gery Williams and Tom Swisher. It is a shame that they haven't told you that personaly, but for what it is worth, I will. All the numbers (which is about all that managers watch) are in our favor. They show that your resolve is firmly planted to be taken seriously by this company. To aid in following that up, Bill and I are going to Jacksonville on the 11th of July to take your concerns to the "horses mouth" and let them know that in no uncertain terms we expect to be treated as the great human beings that we all are. Recently the newly formed auxillary FAACT, met and have aggressively began an operation to get a couple of rogue officers attention in other terminals. They are firmly resolved to dealing with aggregious behavior as it pertains to quality of life issues and those who violate them. We have also met with the newly appointed local chairman for Walbridge and have made the initiative to merge our abilities in dealing with this carrier and the officers that wish to act outside what is considered acceptable behavior. He stated that he has an interest in looking into a spinoff of our local FAACT organization up there. Our courageous spouses should be praised for their efforts and the hope they bring to our quality of life. Just think of a day that their numbers will be so great and their influence so strong that they can take a guy like Tim Male and send him to the food bank for his inhumane treatment of we mere employees that create the money so that organisms like him have a job to begin with. We're getting there folks, stand tall. Should any of you have any concerns that you would like delivered to anyone in the "puzzle palace", please get with one of us before the 11th and it will be addressed. Thanks for making this term so enjoyable and standing firm through these unbelievably tough times. You all are my heros. Take care, and let any of us know anything we can do for you (within reason of course).
Fraternally,
Jeff
05/14/2004 Brothers and Sisters, "The times, they are a changin' ". Where do I begin? First, we are attacked by the bs absenteeism policy letter. Then the change to the IDPAP policy regarding absenteeism. The apparent centralized leadership coming out of Jacksonville, coupled with the lack of local leadership is frightening. If you are like me, you wonder if there will ever be a sunny day. Well, fear no more. How about this for starters. I am told that the Columbus to Cleveland coal runs are on the horizon. The proposal to haul our K trains to Lourdstown has been coordinated with the New Castle LC and he is in compliance to the runs. An article in the newsletter where Toledo was selected for the coke plant. And last but not least an article I read the other day about CSX and the NS, requesting to be relieved of federal oversight in regards to the Conrail merger. That is phase I to another round of mergers. I'm sure you all saw the lame response Don Menefee gave my request to enter the mileage cap program. It seems in times of desparation the enemy calls in all markers of loyalty. WE MUST STAND UNITED. I have always lived under the credo that one "leads, follows or get the f*** out of the way". I hope you agree with me that we can not afford to wait on someone to alienate his allegiance to management and lead this organization. We are poised and prepared to take this fight to them in spite of the absense of leadership. I thank you for all your support and ask that you continue to assist in any way you can. Get your spouse involved in the family support group. Take care of your brothers back. And most of all, I ask that you join me in supporting the PAC. Our legislative people are fighting hard for us all. I wish you all could see the behind the scenes stuff that takes place with these guys. I trust all have heard by now that dues will be dropping by $20.00 probably in the June timeframe for conductors that do not have engineer seniority due to a reduction sent to the general committee. I can think of no better way to help out the fight in righting some wrongs than pledging $5.00 or more per month to help these guys. I recently read that companies outspend labor organizations by the rate of 15:1. We probably will never break even on that but we sure as heck can narrow the margin. Take care folks.....more to come.
Fraternaly,
Jeff
04/06/2004
Brothers and Sisters of Local 34, Today I recieved my proxy card for the upcoming shareholders meeting. One glaring point that I thought was noteworthy was the disparity in employee worth. For you that either don't or have never read CSX's perspectous or their SEC 10Q, you really should, at least once. It makes great toilet reading. This issue, for instance, had some really neat numbers. For instance, did you know our total revenue for year ending 2003 was 7.793 billion dollars? Boring? It gets better trust me. Total expenditures were 7.167 billion, leaving a net profit for the year of 626 million dollars. Not too bad. Our pathetic labor costs, including wages and perks, amounted to 2.74 billion for the 32,892 rail employees. That amounts to an average wage/perk package cost of $83,303. I don't know about you but I didn't come very close to that number. Just when you realize how good you have it, I hit you with this. Michael Ward paid himself a salary of $1,391,065 in actual cash benefits. His salary almost doubled at a time when we had to pay health and welfare copays. But I think what topped it all of was this one. "During 2003, CSX retained an independant actuarial firm to assess the value of CSX's personal injury portfolio. This firm's methods and procedures yielded a slightly higher valuation for personal injury claims that previously recognized by CSX due to a higher estimated cost for adverse development. Utilizing the analysis provided, CSX increased its reserves for alleged personal injury claims by $26 million." Long and short, CSX ain't paying enough for killing us. Based on the above information CSX, in a time of self proclaimed finacial hardships, managed to build up its CYA fund by an astounding 266 million dollars. They now have over 1billion dollars in their CYA account. Last piece of interesting news was the fact that CSX self admits that coal revenues generated from the eastern US mines (ie. West Virginia, Kentucky) represents 26% of the company's total operating revenues for the year. So hold your heads high folks. You are the most undervalued asset this company has. Now you don't just have to take my word on it. Don't think for a minute that we don't keep all these figures, and more on our tongues when the reaper comes knockin'. We know what we are worth and we will never forget it. Take care out there.
Fraternaly,
Jeff
_________________________________________
03/14/2004
Fellow brothers and sisters of local 34,
I am just returning from a company sponsored week off. I must appologize for seeming to disappear from the face of the earth but what a great week it was. I think we all ought to get an oppurtunuity to do this every now and then. Anyway, as I'm sure you all have noticed our task masters have tightened the noose on rules compliance. I mean if they are now getting yard jobs for not isolating second units, it's time to crank it up. Folks, I want to do what our lacking leaders can't or don't want to do. I want to congradulate you all for being the premier terminal with the most improved man failure incidents, over 200 days injury free engineers, and most of all for keeping a positive, and unified attitude through these trying times. I think it shows the great commradery we demonstrate in this great terminal. I want you to know that I spoke to our attorney the other day and at this point I can tell you that the fire is stirring in referencee to the endevours of the rival union that wishes to remain unaffiliated to any other union due to their rougue tactics and fear of retribution. He and his partner are diligently working on tightening the noose around the perverbial neck of those who would treat our Columbus brothers and sisters as pawns in an glorified chess game. Know this. When the union that comprimises our collective ability to maintain our solidarity is eliminated from the face of the planet, we will become stronger, and I believe that ultimately we will have the relationship between management and labor that we all can live with. I truly believe that the two are definately connected. Stand at the ready. In the meantime, give this company exactly what it wants. TOTAL RULES COMPLIANCE. It is time to crank up the volume. We all need to become conversant in rules that we are being held to and hold them to the same. If that means that we never turn a wheel, then so be it. For anyone that wants to know exactly what I mean attend the school of our fellow brother and professor, John Ervin. Am I crazy enough to believe that all will comply? Maybe not at the moment. But we all must hold each other accountable for what is right. Peer pressure is the greatest form of enforcement. Over time we will be the formitible force that I have regular dreams about. How great would it be to someday walk into a mangers office to express a problem over a quality of life deficiency and have them care enough to fix it without all out war. Lets take the fight to them and put them on notice simultaniously that each time they attack us they will take casualties. Make no mistake about it, we can have a great working relationship with managers, but they are not now or ever will be our friends. Don't be disillusioned about that fact. When their position is in jeapordy we become targets of opputunities. Take care out there and look out for each other.
Fraternaly,
Jeff
______________________________________________ 02/10/04
To my fellow brothers and sisters of Division 34. I write you this letter on the eve of my board of inquiry. The nerves are gone as the research has been completed. As General Lee said, the planning is over, the rest is left to the grace of God. I have the finest council anyone could hope for in Bill Lyons. Nothing has been left to chance. I feel like I did in those glorious military years just before a major operation. A person tends to evaluate their principles before a entering a trying moment. For those of you who haven't heard, I was charged with a SOFA violation last Friday at Willard. Superintendant Wilkinson and Trainmaster Cappel took exception for making a backup move with light engines in an announced clear track that could be seen for 40 car lengths by yours truly. My conductor was riding in the cab of the leading locomotive because it was very cold and he didn't give me a car count on the initial movement. As I said I could see approximately 40 cars, so it seemed mute. These indignant so called officers tried their best to encourage me as they did the conductor to take the timeout. They never once asked why we did it or what reasons we chose to do it the way we did. Frankly, they never cared. I believe, as many others do, that we are being punished. Why? I believe it may have something to do with your local becomming a threat to the way they have become accustomed to. Case in point. Brother DA Scott was being persecuted in the hotel a couple of weeks ago. Because of the reputation we have earned with people in certain places, we were able to get him transported out of there just before Willard mysteriously found some power to run Q635. Our friend Dick Dillon told them to pound sand. They had 20+ hours to figure things out and that was enough. Needless to say they were ticked. Lately, it has been much more of the same kind of crap.
Some have asked. Why not take the offered time out? Frankly, I feel that in this situation it is a copout. We are holding all the cards. Does that mean that we will win in the board. Probably not. These sorry excuses for human refuse are not going to continue to scare us into submission the way they have for so long. Maybe thats where the UTU learned their tactics for persecuting their own members into loyal patronage. Time outs certainly have their place in the discipline process. However, for too long we as union leaders have used it to get out of a potentially touchy situation even when the parties feel and believe they have not committed a violation of the rules. When they are used for this, they defy honor. Rest assured of this, if you feel you have done nothing wrong and are charged, YOU WILL BE DEFENDED TO THE EXTENT OF OUR ABILITIES. To hell with these schoolyard thugs and their truckload of attorneys. Right is and always has been right.
Lastly, some have questioned our stance on defending UTU brothers as our own without membership in this division. This is a good question and deserves an answer. We entered in this position believing that we as Columbus brothers had to stop the petty bickering amongst ourselves protecting one organization over another. We felt that by offering a friendly hand that we could focus on the true enemy that we all have to endure. I want you to know that we have always taken the higher road when it came to dealing with controversy. However, things have changed. It seems that each time we reach out to help our brothers we are repaid with treachery and maliscious treatment. First, after we helped two of their brothers that asked us to, they told Terry Reed we violated the representation rule and got Huntington involved. Not true and dropped quickly. The very next day they attacked our conductors by ordering their leaders to cease processing all appeals for our BLET conductors. This is a breech of the duty of fair representation clause of the Landrum-Griffin act and has been dealt with through filing charges on them using our new friend Jon Wentz, Railway Labor Attorney, here in Columbus. Most recently, after getting two more of their people off, (their representative didn't even show up for the hearing, he decided that teaching remote controls was more important) they repaid us by having our BLET conductors dropped from their life insurance policies for a brief time. They claim it was a mistake and that they have fixed the problem. Enough is enough. We tried it and they took advantage of us for it. You are our main concern. We will no longer allow outside distractions to hamper our ability to represent you to the extreme. If their members are concerned about the representation they recieve, they better cross over. No more freebies except to those we are required to assist by federal law. We are firmly focused on you and your concerns. Thanks for all you help as we continue to fight the good fight. I thank God each day for the opportunity to represent such a great group of people.
As always I remain,
Jeff
______________________________________________________ From the Vice Local Chairman
Brothers and Sisters,
Many of you have made it known that we, as a terminal, are now spending way too much time at Willard. Let me bring you up to speed on what has been happening behind the scenes. Your local has graphed out all trains from the 18th of January to the 22nd of February that have pulled out of Willard. This also includes your deadheads home. We cross-referenced the time you arrived in Willard and what your last train was. We then computed the total amount of time you were there. In the test period, we had 26 trains that did not pull within 12 hours of your arrival to Willard. In fact we had a crew that was there in excess of 27 hours!
Armed with this graph we have called the powers that be in Huntington on several occasions. We have only received lip service. A follow up letter was sent to Ray Morris and John Thompson. The letter sends a more powerful statement to them. They will have to answer or the letter CAN and WILL be e-mailed to a higher authority.
We really just don't have the answers we need from them right now to give you a straight answer as to when the problem will be corrected. Most of you have heard the rumbling of Q636 going to Willard. IF that will be the case, the situation should be rectified by the timing of the trains being offset. Only time will tell, but be assured, we are pushing the clock along.
Hopefully we will soon be able to update you on the situation.
Fraternally yours,
WP
_________________________________________
Ray and John,
I sent off a list to Ray on the 25th in regard to the excessive amount of time being spent in Willard, OH. In a span from 18 Jan. to 22 Feb. Columbus crews incurred 25 instances where Q635 or Q349 were not called within 2 hours of their scheduled departure times. The list also illustrates that the amount of time spent in the hotel ranges from 10 hours at the smallest to 25 hours and 25 minutes at the greatest. This in no way can be considered a prime use of manpower, not to mention the expenses involved with taxi and hotel costs.
At the forefront of this issue comes safety. After a crew member has had a good nights sleep, they are awakened to deadhead to Willard to take rest. After a good nights sleep, I find it hard to try to sleep for another 8 hours up the road. Most of us in road service will be able to get a nap in for a few hours at around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Then we are ready to take the train for 12 hours. As evidenced by the list you have been provided, the times when they are calling these trains after an excessive amount of hotel dwell insures that the crews will be unrested and not at peak performance.
There is really no reason to be sending 2 crews to the hotel at 5:30 in the morning. Q349 is a train that can very easily be run with a turn crew. Q635's deadhead, if we must use one instead of deadheading to turn, needs to be adjusted so the crews will not be spending an eternity at the hotel. Surely the cost value alone should make that an easy decision.
Perhaps the Chief dispatcher should brief his employees to keep a watchful eye on the situation that has seemed to develop in Willard. It is our belief that once the train disappears from the line up, the crew should be taxied home within reason. Taking the word of the Train Director at Willard should in no way substitute for good judgment by the Chief. The problem with the departure lately has been attributed to Willard having no power for the train. The logical solution would be to ask what train the power will be arriving on and checking to see where that train is. We all know that the TMCI screen shows a "projected" time to the destination, in this case Willard. If the estimated time of the train arrival is excessive, crews should be taxied home.
We are more than willing to work hand in hand with you in reaching a solution to an unsafe and reoccurring problem. Feel free to call me or email me with any questions you have. Thank you.
WP Lyons
Vice LC BELT Div 34
Columbus OH | |||
| Home Page | Links | President & Secretary | REDBLOCK | What's New | Conductors | Family Support Group | Chairman's Corner | Legislative Representative | Safety Sense Copyright © 2004 BLE Division 34. All Rights Reserved. |
