Description : News Release - 02/24/2000 - BMWE Strike Union Pacific Railroad

Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes

Affiliated with the A.F.L.-C.I.0. and C.L.C.

SENT VIA FACSIMILE

February 24, 2000

TO ALL RAIL LABOR CHIEFS:

This is to advise you that the BMWE will withdraw its services from the Union Pacific Railroad at 6:00 AM CST today. Attached is a copy of the News Release being distributed which explains why the BMWE is taking this action.

Thanking you in advance for your support which will be greatly appreciated by the BMWE members working for the Union Pacific, I am

In Solidarity, M. A. Fleming President

Attachment

cc:
Grand Lodge Officers & Appointees
General Chairmen

ATTACHMENT 01

Press Release Contact: Dave Tanner, 1-888-875-2693,  (307) 787-7058

Thursday, February 24, 2000 6 AM CST

Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees

Strike Union Pacific Railroad

Contracting Out of Bargaining Unit Work in Dispute

(Lyman, Wyoming) The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) announced that it has withdrawn services from the Union Pacific Railroad effective 6 AM CST on February 24, 2000 and has set up picket lines with the intentions of shutting down the railroad operation. Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) announced that the track panel assembly plant in Laramie, Wyoming owned by UPRR and operated by employees represented by the BMWE would be closed down and that future panels would be purchased from outside contractors. Track panels are used in the construction and maintenance of railroad track. The BMWE is the labor union which represents the men and women of UPRR who construct and maintain railroad track, buildings and bridges for the railroad. The closing of the plant is a direct and unilateral change of the collective bargaining agreement in effect between the BMWE and UPRR. There is no question that the agreement in effect between the BMWE and UPRR requires that track panels be fabricated at the Laramie, Wyoming facility. UPRR management refused repeated calls from the Union to negotiate over the illegal closing of the railroad component construction plant.

Dave Tanner, General Chairman of the Union Pacific System Division of the BMWE which represents the affected workers stated :

"It is unfortunate that Union Pacific Railroad management has so little regard for its' employees and the agreements that they have unilaterally taken the action to close the Laramie facility and threaten the livelihood of our members and their families. Management knows full well that our agreement requires that they fabricate track panels at the Laramie, Wyoming faddy. This Union will not stand idly by and permit UPRR to sacrifice the working lives of our members for their insatiable greed and profits. The closing of the plant is illegal and nothing more than greed run amok at the expense of the jobs of decent, hard working American men and women."

The UPRR Is one of the biggest railroads In North America operating 33 thousand miles of track in 23 states in the Western two thirds of the United Stales. UPRR employs 52,000 employees of which approximately 800 are represented by the BMWE.