Eastern Railroad Discussion > What did the BLET get in their coop with Ancora?

Forwarded from Railpax News:

What did the BLE get in their coop with Ancora?

1)  Taking over remote-control switching operations currently handled by conductors,

2)  Engineers also would no longer be required to work as conductors, and

3)  NS and BLET would end a related federal lawsuit that the union brought in 2021.


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/war-of-words-over-norfolk-southerns-board-battle-intensifies-as-railroad-slams-activist-ancoras-labor-negotiation-32fed28e

The war of words in the board battle between Norfolk Southern Corp. and Ancora Holdings Group intensified Monday after the activist investor clinched the support of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

On Friday Ancora announced that its seven proposed candidates for Norfolk Southern’s 13-member board have received the support of the BLET Teamsters, which represents locomotive engineers, conductors, brakemen, firemen, switchmen, hostlers and other train-service employees at Norfolk Southern. In a statement, the labor union said that a change in leadership at Norfolk Southern “is necessary and in the best interest of both BLET members and the railroad’s long-term success.”

In a press release Monday, Norfolk Southern slammed what it described as “unauthorized, value-destructive commitments” by Ancora.

“Ancora, a shareholder in Norfolk Southern with no authority whatsoever to enter into any current or future binding agreement on behalf of the company, has negotiated and signed a memorandum of understanding with the BLET that commits its director nominees to future actions if they gain control of the board,” Norfolk Southern said in a press release.

“Ancora’s actions are a blatant attempt to buy votes through backdoor deals to take control of the company. This desperate effort by Ancora, if successful, provides concessions to the BLET that limit operational flexibility and destroy significant value for the company,” the company said.

“Aside from violating the Railway Labor Act rules that grant exclusive negotiating authority to representatives of Norfolk Southern, Ancora has demonstrated that its own nominees are not independent and are beholden only to Ancora,” Norfolk Southern added.

Norfolk Southern shares rose 0.4% Monday. The company’s stock is up 1.9% in 2024, compared with the S&P 500 index’s SPX gain of 7.2%.

Norfolk Southern and Ancora, which holds a large equity stake in the company, have been trading barbs ahead of the Class I railroad company’s annual meeting on May 9. Earlier this year, Ancora launched its bid to take control of the company’s board, which Norfolk Southern has urged its shareholders to reject. Ancora has also called for the firing of Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw.

If elected, Ancora’s new board members would seek to appoint Jim Barber, a former chief operating officer at United Parcel Service Inc. as CEO of Norfolk Southern.

“The company’s April 29th press release is exactly the type of stunt we predicted Mr. Shaw and his Board would pull when their support faded,” Ancora said in a statement Monday. “We ask shareholders to recognize that current leadership is simply making meritless allegations to distract from its lack of a credible plan and its inability to retain stakeholder confidence.”

Ancora also pointed to Cleveland-Cliffs, one of Norfolk Southern’s largest customers, which placed its support behind the activist’s board slate on Saturday.

“We’re proud that our independent nominees could align with unions on non-binding concepts and non-binding principles for how underserved workers should be treated, especially in the wake of recent dangerous accidents,” Ancora said in its statement. “Our nominees have displayed the constructiveness, experience and relationships that they will bring to the boardroom.”

“At bottom, it’s disingenuous for Mr. Shaw and his Board to chastise us for not having stakeholder support on one hand — and then lash out at us for appropriately obtaining support on the other hand,” Ancora added.

Norfolk Southern declined to provide further comment beyond its press release when contacted by MarketWatch.

BLET believes in loyalty, “but not blind loyalty,” the union’s general chairmen, representing its members at Norfolk Southern, said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “The Norfolk Southern at the start of the proxy battle is not the same NS as today,” they said. “NS’s CEO Alan Shaw, who opposed PSR at the start of the battle, now appears to be a cheerleader for it.”

PSR, or precision scheduled railroading, focuses on the movement of individual train cars rather than whole trains. A key railroad-industry trend of recent years, PSR aims to boost efficiency by streamlining operations. However, critics have questioned its effects on railroad safety.

Last week Ancora gained the support of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Combined, the BMWED-IBT and the BLET Teamsters account for 41.5% of Norfolk Southern’s workforce.

On Monday, Ancora also announced the support of independent proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis. In a press release, Glass Lewis said there is a “compelling case for supporting a substantial overhaul of the company’s leadership.”

Norfolk Southern recently said it has reached an agreement in principle to settle a class-action lawsuit brought after last year’s derailment of one of the company’s trains in East Palestine, Ohio.

Last week Norfolk Southern confirmed that its first-quarter results were in line with its preliminary results released earlier this month. The company also said that the impact of the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse in Baltimore is in the range of $25 million to $35 million per month.

Can NS just arbitrarily say which union represents a craft?

Jamie must have promised the union leaders some of the cash he finds hidden
behind the walls when he "takes NS down to the studs".  Oh wait, leadership would
never sell out the rank and file.

Endorsement by Glass Lewis is a big deal.

A very big deal.

Most large institutional investors lack the staff and interest to research each nominee or question presented by the companies in which they own shares. So they hire proxy advisory services to advise them. The advisory firm's opinions carry a lot of weight. Esp with fiduciaries.

Posted from Android

And, how about BMWE? What did they get?

As long as the unions screw each other over, the company will win.

And define "union", it's rarely the rank and file but those well above. The rank and file is not going to
come out ahead if Ancora takes over.

Out

ts1457 Wrote:
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> Can NS just arbitrarily say which union represents
> a craft?

As I remember it,  remote control operator was deemed to be a position rather than a craft.  Given the past knowledge I have of the Vernon arbitrated ruling on remote control and the subsequent  collective barganing agreements on NS,  I believe language exists on more than one path  to affect the change that Ancora may have offered - at least on the Southern lines.  NS Engineers have negotiated along past rail line jurisdictions (SOU, N&W, and WAB-NKP) with ex-CR lines assigned to all three general committees.  Variations can exist between the three general committees collective bargaining agreements.
 

Thanks for that pithy summary, notch 7.

Railroads have perfected the art of DIVIDE AND CONQUER when it comes to craft unions.

Posted from Android

callum_out Wrote:
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> The rank and file is not
> going to
> come out ahead if Ancora takes over.
>
> Out

And this is a concern for a nephew of mine who is weeks away from completing his conductor training and being released. I believe the term he used was that he would be able to ‘mark up’. He did this as a total life change last summer and it concerns me that he might have the rug pulled out from under his feet.

Posted from iPhone

Unions have outlived their usefulness. This is all they do now, screw over the members, as long as the union gets more $$$$$. I was a letter carrier at USPS for four years, watched our union screw us at every turn and told us we need to work with management as they made our job harder. 

The unions just made a deal with the devil, hope it works better than we all think it will.

Union leadership in Cleveland will soon be driving new Mercedes-Benzes while their membership is sold down the river.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Thanks for that pithy summary, notch 7.
>
> Railroads have perfected the art of DIVIDE AND
> CONQUER when it comes to craft unions.
>
> Posted from Android

This.

I’m a BLE&T member and I think this, at least at face value, is terrible. 😡

Regards

Posted from iPhone

No, Gene ... the BLE-T did NOT "take" the remote box from the conductor. The actual document (which SMART-TD released and was hyperlinked in the Trains article) is provided below. It appears SMART-TD exaggerated quite a bit, and the various news outlets ran with it.

The resolution contains no references to BLE-T crafts operating the RCL box. It merely affirms that a BLE-T represented craft employee will operate the locomotive in conventional mode.

It's addressed in item 11.

Posted from Android



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/24 09:18 by bioyans.

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What’s of note in all of this; since this “deal” became public, NS’ share price has really been dropping. Are investors “voting with their feet?”

CW

Posted from iPhone

Juniata Wrote:
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> What’s of note in all of this; since this
> “deal” became public, NS’ share price has
> really been dropping. Are investors “voting with
> their feet?”
>
> CW
>
> Posted from iPhone

One can only hope. Wall Street bastards.

Regards

Since the General Committee agreed to this, wonder if they solicited the memberships thoughts, or at least the Local Chairman? Like to hear from some of the NS Engineers and Trainman.
Steve

ln844south Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Since the General Committee agreed to this, wonder
> if they solicited the memberships thoughts, or at
> least the Local Chairman? Like to hear from some
> of the NS Engineers and Trainman.
> Steve

Having read the actual text, it appears SMART-TD exaggerated a bit. None of the actual contractual issues appear to be new. These seem to be clarifications on existing items that were previously under dispute.

The forced demotion to CO was a relatively new one, thanks to a rather suspect interpretation from Labor Relations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/24 09:28 by bioyans.

NOPE  They didnt ask membership nor did they ask local chairmen, Same as the last contract they signed just shoved it though in violation of the bylaws

ln844south Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Since the General Committee agreed to this, wonder
> if they solicited the memberships thoughts, or at
> least the Local Chairman? Like to hear from some
> of the NS Engineers and Trainman.
> Steve

Can engineers really be forced to work as a conductor on NS? I'm not talking about being forced to a conductor position due to the lack of seniority to hold an engineer position. I'm talking about you're working an engineer board or something and you get called as a conductor.