BLE places $100-a-head bounty on UTU members on Union Pacific RR

BLE places $100-a-head bounty
on UTU members on Union Pacific Railroad

Dubroski paying favored mobilizers, officers
$100 for each UTU member they can get to switch to BLE

CLEVELAND – In an attempt to buy as many potential votes as possible on the Union Pacific Railroad if a representation election is held, the president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) has sanctioned paying a "bounty" for raiding UTU members.

BLE President Ed "Landslide" Dubroski is paying favored mobilizers and other operatives a "bounty" of $100 for every UTU member who can be persuaded to join the BLE. However, BLE sources say that bickering between BLE operatives over how the $100 should be "divvied up over certain heads" is causing ill will.

In addition, the $100-a-head bounty strategy appears to be backfiring in Dubroski’s face as word has leaked that the BLE is paying "bounties." Although the BLE is offering temporary "entry-rate dues" that will later become 25% higher than the UTU’s, few UTU members have switched. Many are now citing the fact that their pride and honor "can’t be bought for a $100" saying Dubroski’s scheme "is as low as it gets" in the labor world.

Dubroski earned the nickname "Landslide Eddy" because he won by only 18 votes in last summer’s recall election getting only 6,937 total votes. That means Dubroski was elected by barely more than 25% of the BLE active membership. Only about 50% of the BLE’s approximately 27,000 members of even bothered to vote in the BLE’s first successful recall election in 136 years.

In stark contrast, UTU International President Charles L. Little was re-elected to a new four-year term by more than 82% of the delegates at the Quadrennial Convention in Miami Beach. In addition, the delegates overwhelmingly asked Little and the UTU leadership to pursue the National Mediation Board petition for a representation election on the Union Pacific Railroad to its conclusion.

"Let me remind everyone," said UTU International President Charles L. Little, "that the BLE was found guilty by the Canadian Labour Board of lying during a 1997 representation election at VIA Rail in Canada. The BLE was convicted of lying over 300 jobs by the Canadian government, so ask yourself what lies are they capable of telling when 22,000 jobs are at stake on the Union Pacific Railroad?

"In the history of rail labor, no union has ever before been found guilty of lying by a national government," Little continued. "Also remember that no union in the history of labor has had the top two International officers sign a Unification Agreement with another union – like Dubroski and Monin did – and then break their word. The problem with the BLE is that there is no one in its current radical leadership whose word is worth a hill of beans."

For the last 20 years, the BLE has suffered from debilitating leadership instability problems. Dubroski is the BLE’s sixth president in the last 16 years. Paralyzed by its leadership vacuum, Dubroski was able to "play both sides of the fence" and manipulate a minority radical wing of the Brotherhood by deceiving them about his real role in signing the agreement to unify with the UTU.

Working in conjunction with right-wing BLE GS&T Russell Bennett, Dubroski was successful last summer in tossing out President Clarence Monin – by the thinnest of margins. But since only about 25% of the total BLE membership favored removing Monin, Dubroski was forced into cutting a rich "golden parachute" deal with the man he ousted. Dubroski admitted in a letter to BLE members that he had to make a deal with Monin because the recall election could be challenged over irregularities. According to BLE sources, Dubroski has agreed to continue paying Monin’s salary, a $100-an-hour consulting fee, and his $25,000 country club membership.