Western Railroad Discussion > one man crew agreement defeated

the bnsf one man crew agreement was defeated in 2 days of vote counting

O-001 Local Chairpersons (and members)

Brothers and Sisters,
...
Please be advised that we have completed the tabulation of ratification ballots for the tentative Crew Consist Agreement and Wage & Rule Settlement, and neither agreement was ratified. A more complete summary of the vote will be forthcoming in the next several weeks but we felt it was important to provide you and our members with immediate notification that these agreements were not ratified.

Moving forward, this office will notify BNSF Labor Relations that we remain open to informal conversation regarding these matters, but will oppose any formal attempt by BNSF to serve notice to change our existing crew consist agreements prior to the attrition of all protected employees.

Fraternally,
Randall Knutson
General Chairperson

Good news but don't relax, they will be back.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

I agree but I've had a number of railroad employees tell me that Congress would never let it go forward given the problems with oil unit trains, etc.

fbe Wrote:
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> Good news but don't relax, they will be back.
>
> Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

I'm glad it didn't make it, BUT they will be back to try this again. It would not surprise me if they sweeten the deal with extras. If I was them (SMART) I would ask for so much like huge pay raise, more vacation, sick days guarantee off days plus much, more to the point where they didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Jim, they are having problems getting that two man rule into congress. Time will tell. Call your congressman and protest....

I heard 70% were opposed!

>
> Moving forward, this office will notify BNSF Labor
> Relations that we remain open to informal
> conversation regarding these matters,
>
I sure don't like the sound of this line. Might it mean that the "super committee" is open to snuggling under the blanket with the carrier(s)??!

MEKoch Wrote:
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> I heard 70% were opposed!

Exact numbers haven't been released but it was 70% of eligible votes were returned.

Now it comes down to the politics. The general committee with data about how unpopular the idea is. The company will certainly try to sweeten the pot or they may realize the top levels of the union as well as the rank and file will not likely stand to be blind sided like this again.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

SMART (???????) needs to fire a General Chairman.

gyralite Wrote:
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> SMART (???????) needs to fire a General Chairman.

I don't believe they can, but we definitely now need to get everyone who signed onto this horrible proposal voted out of office ASAP!!!

My brothers and sisters, we can rest easy tonight knowing our jobs and crews are safe. We live to fight another day, which we all hope is a long ways away.

Posted from Android

china4 Wrote:
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> I'm glad it didn't make it, BUT they will be back
> to try this again. It would not surprise me if
> they sweeten the deal with extras. If I was them
> (SMART) I would ask for so much like huge pay
> raise, more vacation, sick days guarantee off days
> plus much, more to the point where they didn't
> want to talk about it anymore.


There are lots of labor precedents to make this a win-win.

The east coast dock workers gained an agreement which had lifetime job security, accelerated pension credits for guys over 52, lifetime benefits, etc based on how many years you had in the game.

Many of the same arguments (guys working alone are unsafe, etc) were said then. The deal held, the dock management companies are making boat loads of money, and the longshoremen are doing just fine.

Change is going to happen, you might as well get your piece of the annual gains locked down.

I find something like this proposal extremely difficult to get ones arms around. Repeat, until the past occurrences with oil trains creating a scare, I think it will be a long, long time before something like this can happen. Politics or no politics.

Jim

MEKoch Wrote:
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> I heard 70% were opposed!


If you are right on the 70%, what nut would vote yes. Steve

Sadly, as with voting in general in our society, there are many who choose to stand by the wayside and not participate. By failing to take the time to vote in such a monumental decision, it's practically like voting 'yes' IMO.

Posted from iPhone

Milw_E70 Wrote:
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> MEKoch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I heard 70% were opposed!
>
> Exact numbers haven't been released but it was 70%
> of eligible votes were returned.

If true, that is a sad turnout for such a major vote.

I'm just so glad that the thing was voted DOWN DOWN DOWN!!! [And if the turnout was 70%, that's actually pretty high IMHO?]. Certainly beats the percentages for Presidential and most other political elections by a longshot. I agree that it should have been in the 90% range for something of this importance. But at least it went the right way. And this is happy news for me, and for many others in both of the running trades, and both working and retired!!!

Now retired as I am, this is the POWER of the younger men/women bring their force to bear on this old wise-a** General Chairman. Who will be entering as he says "further informal talks" with the BNSF indeed. The day has come when the newer hires OUTNUMBER the protected oldheads. (And the only reason that I bring this up is that I talk to both, and some of them of both persuasions have different reasons perhaps for having voted "Yes" or "No."). I'm simply glad that however the breakdown was between the newer vs. older employees was with the vote, that the majority of "NO" votes prevailed for craft autonomy, "NO" to the silly idea of "Master Conductors," "NO" to younger members selling off their jobs eventually, and "NO to selling OUT their hoghead brothers!!!

And just stand FIRM and in SOLIDARITY. As there WILL be scare tactics used!!!

Typhoon Wrote:
>
> If true, that is a sad turnout for such a major vote.


70% is a Hell of a lot better than most political elections in the US...

Can anyone provide the actual text of the proposal, or a link to something that provides quotes from it?