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Railway Clerk, The 1969 December Employee Magazine 22 pages
The Railway Clerk 1969 December
Although I could not express it as eloquently as did Thomas Jefferson, his words reflect my own feelings in recent weeks. My decision to disaffiliate our Brotherhood from the Railway Labor Executives' Association was not an easy one to make. What brought it about was my firm belief that the welfare of our members was at stake.
I have spent the major part of my life in working toward unity among all rail labor organizations. But unity is only a word; its real value lies in the meaning and spirit behind that word. Unity is not achieved merely by establishing and financing an organization with that stated aim.
An organization operating without a true spirit of unity can become self-serving; it can become more concerned with its own existence than with the welfare of those whom it is designed to serve. Unfortunately, that is what happened to the RLEA.
The chief executives of unions representing a mere 20% of railroad industry employes have engaged in a bitter "mud-slinging" fight to prevent passage of the supplemental pension bill. Not content with basing their case on facts, some of them have resorted to slander and falsehood; some have even sought to bend the RLEA to their will, and in so doing, they have irreparably weakened the Association.
For many years, the RLEA has operated under the principle of remaining neutral on pending legislation, unless it had a consensus among its members. The Association abandoned that principle when the dispute over supplemental pensions arose.
Under its one-union one-vote structure, the RLEA is ideal for a small union. However, for a large union such as BRAC, the structure is grossly unrealistic and unjust. We, too, are limited to one vote despite our size. But when it comes to financing the RLEA's operations, it's a different matter. For the past nine months, BRAC has paid 26.75 percent of the Association's direct bills, and much more in indirect costs. In other words, we have been paying an increasingly larger share of the bills and, at the same time, having an increasingly smaller voice in the RLEA's affairs, by virtue of the one-union one-vote rule.
Convinced that the RLEA's only future lay in a drastic reorganization of its goals and functions, I sought for many months to work for change from within. My efforts to achieve this reorganization resulted in frustration, increasing costs and frequent abuse - particularly from unions with very few members in the railroad industry.
My first and foremost responsibility is to protect the best interests of the members of this Brotherhood. When any individual or any group seeks to violate those interests, I have no choice but to fight.
As Thomas Jefferson said: "Institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times." The RLEA chose to look only at the past. We and all who join with us must look to the future.
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