After receiving the award, UTU International President Byron A. Boyd Jr. said, "Now that we have a definitive award that supports our agreement, UTU will continue to look to the future and take the necessary actions needed to protect our members who are operating employees on the nation's railroads. This victory only confirms what we have been saying for some time: the work of the operating employees has been changing and will continue to change because of advancements in technology.

"From the outset, it was not the desire of UTU to see remote control technology implemented in the United States," Boyd said. "We watched what happened in Canada more than 10 years ago. We watched as the UTU and the BLE in Canada began to cooperate together to negotiate a common agreement, and we saw what happened when that unity disintegrated. UTU learned two valuable lessons from the Canadian experience," Boyd said. "One was that technology cannot be stopped. Two was that operating employees gain more by standing together as one organization. We had believed others had learned that lesson also, but apparently they had not.

"UTU did not seek to negotiate on remote control separately and UTU did not ask for this arbitration," Boyd said. "UTU asked the other organization to be a full partner before any negotiations were started. UTU has done everything in it's power to convince and persuade the other organization we should be together. We also believe this decision supports our actions before the National Mediation Board in seeking a ruling or decision that would require single representation of the operating employees -- not for the protection of either organization, but for the betterment and protection of each and every operating employee," Boyd said.

"For those who want to continue down the road of artificially separating the railroad operating employees, I can only say the same as I did at the outset of remote control negotiations - that UTU will not stand by and watch change take place, but will participate in order to protect our membership," Boyd said. "Unifying the operating employees into one union is so basic and is so needed."

President Boyd commended UTU General Counsel Clint Miller for his "exceptional leadership in crafting the briefs, giving oral argument and providing counsel to me, to Assistant President Paul Thompson and to General Secretary Dan Johnson." Boyd also extended his "gratitude to UTU vice presidents Rick Marceau and Carl Vahldick".

Click on Special Board of Adjustment No. 1141 to view the arbitration award.