A Message from Washington
About the Railroad Retirement Package

by James M. Brunkenhoefer
UTU National Legislative Director

For a long time, members of the right wing have used call-in programs on talk radio and television to spread their messages and foster their agendas. You have heard them, and it has made you feel like you’ve been overrun. A few well-placed calls sound like a ground-swell of sentiment. That’s no accident. Through phone trees and other commonly used political devices, those calls are carefully orchestrated and skillfully choreographed. They are scripted with buzzwords that are meant to inflame. Now, maybe it should be our turn.

Many viewers and listeners of those programs support the senators who killed our Railroad Retirement improvement package. Many who participated in killing the Railroad Retirement effort believed they could do so without paying any political price on Election Day.

These call-in shows present us with a golden opportunity over the next several days. We are the people these call-in shows were designed to serve. This is an important message that you can best carry, and which should be broadcast, whenever and wherever possible.

Every morning, and at other times, there are call-in programs on the C-SPAN television network. The phone numbers for callers typically are provided on the television screen. Every Congressional office monitors this channel (C-SPAN). You cannot enter an office on Capitol Hill without seeing it playing in the background.

I am sure there are similar programs in your area that allow callers to express their opinions. Take full advantage of that invitation. Many programs have a Republican phone line and a Democratic phone line -- don’t hesitate to use either. We have a mix of both party members in our union, and improving Railroad Retirement has always been a bipartisan issue. And because it is OUR issue, it doesn’t make us left wing, right wing or centrist. It makes us concerned.

Don’t limit your efforts just to news or political programs. Religious programs, sports programs, those dealing with women’s issues -- it doesn’t matter what the moderator has designated as the subject of the day, because this issue is vital to us.

It is important to get YOUR message out about those who killed your chance for Railroad Retirement improvement. This will be particularly effective over the next 10 days. The more people who call, the more shows that are called and the wider the message is broadcast, the greater our impact. If we are successful at this tactic, those who killed the Railroad Retirement improvement effort will be less able, and less likely, to do it again in the next Congress.

Call into those programs and tell the viewers and listeners how you feel about those who killed the Railroad Retirement improvement effort.

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