NMB to hear
UTU vs. BLE on July 6, 1999

Officer claims BLE
"paralyzed, split down middle"

CLEVELAND ­ As the National Mediation Board (NMB) begins hearings July 6, two top officers of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE) admit their union is split down the middle, troubled financially, paralyzed, and intentionally provoked the UTU.

The BLE's number-two officer charged its president with scuttling unification to save his job. BLE First Vice President Ed Dubroski, who is facing off against BLE President Clarence Monin in a bitterly contested recall election, said in a letter to members that Monin "provoke(d) the UTU into going back to the NMB" to save his job.

In his June 14 State of the Union speech at the St. Louis Regional Meeting, UTU International President Charles L. Little told the 1,000 UTU members at the Regal Riverfront Hotel that the BLE itself has now confirmed it was internal politics and deception that scuttled unification, not UTU finances or anything else.

Little said that a "civil war" inside the BLE prompted its president into intentionally "provoking" the UTU into reactivating its NMB petition.

"The BLE is engaged in a civil war," said Little. "It is a house divided, and it will not stand. The UTU is a house unified. We will stand, and we will prevail."

Little added, "The BLE provoked this latest confrontation, and now it's up to the NMB to do its job and provide a safe haven for a representation vote on the Union Pacific."

The NMB hearings on the UTU's petition to hold a representation election for the craft or class of Train and Engine Service Employees on the Union Pacific Railroad will take place July 6-9. Briefs are due by August 2 and reply briefs by August 9. The matter will be ready for decision then, the NMB said, and a decision is expected by the end of August. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 6, at the NMB's headquarters in Washington, D.C.

On May 11, the UTU requested that the NMB reactivate this proceeding after being notified on May 10 by the BLE that it was withdrawing from unification discussions. In 1961, the NMB used a similar hearing procedure when it found Flight Deck Crewmembers (pilots, co-pilots, flight engineers) was a proper craft or class on United Airlines.

The BLE announced it is planning a rally in Washington, D.C., on July 6 to intimidate the NMB from authorizing a representation election on the Union Pacific Railroad. The BLE's mobilization team, called the "brownshirt army" according to a letter by BLE's Iowa state legislative director that was part of federal court documents, will lead the rally.

In St. Louis, Little told the UTU members about how the BLE is calling its mobilization team a "brownshirt army."

"For anyone who remembers," Little said, "the brownshirts operated in Germany in the 1930's. They were a contemptuous group, and have no place in America or in the American labor movement. They are an affront and slap in the face to every World War II veteran and every American. Their formation by the BLE speaks to the lowest form of leadership and paranoia."

In regard to the BLE's planned July 6 rally, he said, "Regardless of the BLE brownshirts and their tactics in Washington, D.C., or elsewhere, we believe the NMB will make a decision by the end of August allowing a representation election on the Union Pacific."

The BLE's troubled finances are also playing a big part in the recall against its president.

BLE General Secretary-Treasurer Russell W. Bennett told the Washington, D.C.-based Daily Labor Reporter in its May 26 edition that "the union (BLE) is in financial trouble." He said he recently reported to the membership that the union "operated in the red in 30 of the past 34 months."

"The BLE is in financial trouble, not the UTU," said UTU Assistant President Byron A. Boyd, Jr. "This blows the lid off their fabricated reason for pulling out of unification. It shows how their leadership has totally misled its members."

Boyd pointed out that on May 10 the accounting firm of Ernst & Young completed its final audit of UTU 1998 finances. The UTU's audited financial statements indicate that UTU finances are sound and stable. The UTU has $43 million in the bank; the UTUIA has assets of about $221 million and record reserves of approximately $33 million.

In contrast, the BLE has not yet filed its 1998 LM financial report with the Department of Labor, which was due in March. In addition, Bennett's letter to members showed the BLE general fund was in the red for the last three years, and that its strike fund had only about $32,000.

On May 20, Bennett won a court decision permitting him to send out recall ballots. Monin's request for a temporary restraining order was denied by Judge Ann Aldrich of the U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio.

Bennett told the Daily Labor Reporter that recall ballots were being mailed to approximately 30,000 active members and must be returned on or before July 27. He said the BLE constitution provides that recall must be approved by a simple majority of the members voting.

Said the UTU's Boyd: "This story in the Daily Labor Reporter confirms that UTU has been telling the truth and the BLE has been lying to us and its members."

In his letter to BLE members, Dubroski said, "President Monin has proved to me that he is willing to risk all in his effort to keep his position, even if it means putting the members of the BLE as a whole at risk, as he has done by provoking the UTU into going back to the NMB."

He also said: "Our Constitutional process has broken down, and our brotherhood is nearly paralyzed, not because of the Statement of Principles (with the UTU), but because of the manipulation of information and officers by our International President.

"Our Advisory Board is split down the middle...President Monin has proven himself unworthy of the trust of the members and officers of this organization, and we cannot begin to put our house in order while he remains in office."

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