BLET Division 183

08/24/2025

Union Pacific: BLET “vehemently objects” to railroad’s relocation plans for portions of North Platte home terminal

The BLET is objecting to a proposed plan presented by Union Pacific to relocate the home terminal for some train crews based in North Platte, Nebraska. Under UP’s proposal, crews would be based in Fremont, Nebraska, or Missouri Valley, Iowa. About 200 railroaders and their families would be affected if this plan is implemented.

UP’s intent is to eliminate North Platte as a home terminal for freight trains traveling between North Platte and Fremont, as well as between North Platte and Missouri Valley, Iowa. North Platte would only serve as an away-from-home terminal for crews that originate in the Omaha area.

“The BLET vehemently objects to this,” said BLET General Chairman Chad Lambert (UP-Eastern District GCA) in remarks to the North Platte Bulletin. “It’s the union’s position that this is contractually improper, not based on any sound economic foundation, and would impose an unnecessary and avoidable hardship on our members, their families and the North Platte community.”

Lambert said the proposed change would significantly disrupt the lives of many engineers, who have established families, homes, and community ties in North Platte. Additionally, uprooting this crew base would impose severe logistical, financial, and emotional burdens on employees. Most would be forced to relocate away from their homes, schools, churches, and support networks.

“The impact would not be felt in isolation; it would ripple outward to affect spouses, children, and entire households,” Lambert said. “For our members, this is not merely a matter of revised job duties or administrative adjustments. It represents a fundamental shift in work-life balance, financial security, and family stability. These personal hardships should not be dismissed or treated as incidental consequences of a business proposal. They are central to our responsibility as a labor organization and weigh heavily in our strong opposition to this proposal.”

Photo by Cory Rusch, BLET Division 659

05/16/2025

2nd Vice General Chairman of the BLET-Union Pacific Eastern District, Matt Lovett and his wife Melissa recently lost their son in a tragic car accident. Please help them in this time of need.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-kades-family-through-this-heartbreak?fbclid=IwY2xjawKUIs1leHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFvYlMzWllPNzNmWFM4TmhPAR4NLmi_kzOy6GLlCZJsDFBlu5D0Uw0sNxPjVhSGP7mwbBrDjZinJ6rx5W327Q_aem_DJG10Clrw4IpTj2aOgT1KQ

Please join us in supporting our colleagues, Melissa Lovett and Kaylee Joh… Denise Rodriguez needs your support for Help Kade's Family Through This Heartbreak

04/30/2025

04/07/2024

Reminder: Union Meeting Tomorrow Monrning 9am

12/16/2022

https://ble-t.org/news/election-statement-by-dennis-r-pierce/

After hiring out at the railroad over 45 years ago, with 32 of those years spent serving our great Brotherhood as an officer at every level of our Union, I will be retiring at the end of my current term on December 31, 2022.

11/17/2022

National contract replacement ballot deadline is November 18

Voting for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) Tentative National Agreement will continue until Sunday, November 20, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

However, the deadline to request a replacement ballot is November 18, 2022 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Eligible members who have yet to receive a contract ratification ballot must call the BLET National Division at (216) 241-2630, ext. 222, before 3:30 p.m. tomorrow. When connected with the extension, please leave the following information:

• your name, address and phone number;
• the division to which you belong;
• the railroad for which you work;
• the date you were promoted to locomotive engineer;
• your date of birth;
• the last four digits of your Social Security number; and
• your email address.

All contract ratification replacement ballots will be distributed via email. Therefore, members who do not leave a voicemail with their email address will not receive a contract ratification replacement ballot.

On October 31, 2022, contract ratification ballots, instructions, and a synopsis of the agreement were mailed to approximately 24,000 members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen for voting on the tentative national agreement.

11/04/2022

You should have your ballots by now for National President. Please vote. Any questions give me a call.

09/12/2022

SMART TD-BLET Joint Statement on Rail Embargo

Statement by Jeremy Ferguson, President, SMART Transportation Division
and
Dennis Pierce, President, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Teamsters Rail Conference
on
Move announced by the nation’s largest railroads today to further abuse shippers and gridlock the supply chain in order to extort a contract settlement from rail unions

Late on Friday, September 9, the nation’s largest railroads began warning major shippers that they are declaring an embargo on certain types of new shipments five days in advance of the end of the federally mandated cooling-off period at 12:00 AM EDT September 16. They further advised that all rail shippers could be blocked from making any rail shipments well in advance of next Friday’s deadline for a lockout or strike. This completely unnecessary attack on rail shippers by these highly profitable Class I railroads is no more than corporate extortion. Our Unions remain at the bargaining table and have given the rail carriers a proposal that we would be willing to submit to our members for ratification, but it is the rail carriers that refuse to reach an acceptable agreement. In fact, it was abundantly clear from our negotiations over the past few days that the railroads show no intentions of reaching an agreement with our Unions, but they cannot legally lock out our members until the end of the cooling-off period. Instead, they are locking out their customers beginning on Monday and further harming the supply chain in an effort to provoke congressional action.

The railroads are using shippers, consumers, and the supply chain of our nation as pawns in an effort to get our Unions to cave into their contract demands knowing that our members would never accept them. Our Unions will not cave into these scare tactics, and Congress must not cave into what can only be described as corporate terrorism.

Rather than gridlock the supply chain by denying shipments and potentially locking our members out next Friday, the railroads should work towards a fair settlement that our members, their employees, would ratify. For that to happen, we must make improvements to the working conditions that have been on the bargaining table since negotiations began. Penalizing engineers and conductors for getting sick or going to a doctor’s visit with termination must be stopped as part of this contract settlement. Let us repeat that, our members are being terminated for getting sick or for attending routine medical visits as we crawl our way out of worldwide pandemic.

No working-class American should be treated with this level of harassment in the workplace for simply becoming ill or going to a routine medical visit. Sadly, the Presidential Emergency Board recommendation got it wrong on this issue. As we have said from the day that they were implemented, these policies are destroying the lives of our members, who are the backbone of the railroad industry.

These employment policies have forced thousands of employees out of the industry and make it all but impossible to recruit new workers. With understaffed operations, these railroads abuse their best customers by refusing to provide deliveries consistent with their legal obligations. These self-appointed titans of industry complain constantly about government regulation and interference — except now when it comes to breaking the backs of their employees. It’s time for the federal government to tell the CEO’s who are running the nation’s railroads into the ground that enough is enough. Congress should stay out of the rail dispute and tell the railroads to do what other business leaders do — sit down and bargain a contract that your employees will accept.

# # #

The SMART Transportation Division is comprised of approximately 125,000 active and retired members of the former United Transportation Union, who work in a variety of crafts in the transportation industry.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen represents nearly 57,000 professional locomotive engineers and trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.