President Fleming's State of the Union Keynote Address

Brothers and Sisters. I speak to you at a solemn hour in our union's history. Every few years since our founding in 1887, we have assembled in halls like this all across North America, to transact our members' business. In all likelihood, this is the last time we will meet in a convention exactly like this. The time for bold and swift action to remedy our union's ills has certainly come but not gone. No one should doubt either the authority or necessity for this body of delegates, duly elected by the members to represent them, to act with intelligence and resolve. Delay is merely denial, and not to decide is to let others decide for us, on their terms, not ours. Broad and historical trends have carried us, and the entire labor movement, in directions we would not have chosen for ourselves. Essentially, the right to strike is denied us. The right to organize is impaired. The growth of air travel and the interstate highway system, both heavily subsidized at taxpayer expense, has decimated rail passenger service in the United States and Canada. Even now, our meager passenger rail system is under further attack by foolish people who are willing to jeopardize Amtrak and our jobs and families. Changes directly affecting our craft have resulted in our membership being cut in half over the last twenty years. All of Rail Labor struggles against at least some of the forces working against us: cutbacks, furloughs, line spinoffs and abandonments, technological changes, railroad mergers, government entities, and the cutting of track and equipment maintenance, which stems from corporate greed. All too often arbitration and the courts have turned out to be ineffective and sometimes even harmful solutions. And declining membership means declining revenue to provide the vital services any union must deliver for each and every member. In spite of all the challenges that come from an uneven playing field, every day each of us in this room fights to win the battles which protect our members' livelihood, their income, their job security, their benefits, their safety, and their dignity. I submit to you, that we can only continue to win those battles if we place ourselves in a new and expanded Brotherhood. We need more troops, more ammo, more time, and more friends. And how do we get more? We can only get more together, as Brothers and Sisters fighting on the same side. None of us can do it alone, and we certainly can't do it fighting amongst ourselves. Let me draw your attention to the theme of this Convention - "Meeting the Challenges of the 21st Century together." Together is the key word here, meeting the challenges together. In 1937, author Heywood Brown wrote, "The strength of a labor group remains within its own hands." And it is by your own hands, Brothers and Sisters, that we strengthen our union ??? together. Our Brotherhood has been in existence now for 115 years, founded in July 1887 along the banks of a river near Demopolis, Alabama. Did difference of opinion occur amongst the members in those early years concerning how best to structure, operate, and finance the union? Of course they did. Did members speak passionately and believe strongly in support of their convictions? Surely they did. Did members fight as hard as possible for their respective positions until finally reaching some reasonable resolution to the issues at hand? Thankfully, yes they did. Walter Reuther, the great UAW leader from Detroit, provides us with an historical observation about differences within the union. Reuther said, "One must be careful never to destroy one's opposition. You may defeat them, but your goal should always be to convert them, never to destroy them. That must be the goal of all of us gathered here in Convention. To convert, not destroy. To embrace, not reject. To unite, not divide. It is healthy for our union that you, as delegates and representatives, speak your mind on any issue you feel compelled to speak to. No one person has all the answers, or at least, not all the right answers! This Brotherhood needs your input, needs your participation, needs to hear all sides of the issue before putting it to a vote. Together, we will meet the challenges of the 21st Century. Convention is the supreme authority of the Brotherhood while in session, and it is this body that must carefully consider and decide the questions which will govern the direction, and impact the effectiveness, of our union well into the future. When you think about it, moving this organization forward is no different than changing a rail. We have to do the heavy lifting together, as one, in unison, with both hands on the tongs. Back straight, legs braced, heads held high. Just as we have done together for the past 115 years. Together, we commit. Together, we lift. Together, we meet the challenges of the future. As Brother LaRue stated earlier, we have about as many members today as we had 100 years ago in 1903. During the ensuing 25 years, however, our membership grew in number to 440,000, growth that was preceded by merger between two separate U.S.-based organizations, and then another merger with a third separate union, the United Brotherhood of Railroad Trackmen from Canada. This was a period of astounding growth, during a period of astounding union expansion and railroad development. None of us can realistically hope for such rapid expansion to again swell the ranks and strength of BMWE or organized labor. But there are ways by which we can grow and strengthen BMWE in this 21st Century. We have to explore our options, and we have to make well reasoned decisions in order to remain relevant as an organization and as representatives of the proud class and craft of Maintenance of Way employees. Only by remaining relevant can we remain responsive to the needs of our membership, a membership that each of us has been entrusted to represent here at convention. Our opportunities may appear limited, but that is perhaps in appearance only. The reality is that we as a body must create our own opportunities. Contrary to popular belief, opportunity seldom knocks. Rather, opportunity is sly and elusive and must be aggressively sought out by those who hope to capture it and make it their own. There are opportunities in moving freight from our highways and onto our railways. There are opportunities in high-speed rail and emerging mag-lev rail technologies. But these opportunities won't knock on our door. Rather, we must find the means and possess the will to make these emerging opportunities our own. We must seek and seize these opportunities, together, to meet the challenges of the 21st Century. And how do we do that? By understanding the obstacles confronting us. By recognizing that the old ways are not necessarily still the best ways. By repositioning and transforming ourselves to make our own opportunities, and then taking full advantage of them. The promise of emerging opportunities will only be fulfilled for our members if we have the strength and fortitude to make the difficult decisions to transform the BMWE and Organized Labor to meet the new economic realities of our world. We clearly cannot position ourselves to take advantage of emerging opportunities unless we find ways to grow our union and increase our collective strength. When we stand still as an organization, we simply go backwards. We must look ahead and make our own opportunities and our own future. Two necessary components of this transformation are the need to organize and the need to merge. For the BMWE, both organizing and union mergers are necessary for the future relevancy of our union, and, in fact, the relevancy of the entire labor movement. The fact is, without a good merger, the BMWE cannot effectively organize. If we can't effectively organize, especially in the area of high-speed rail, we may well become irrelevant and relegated to fighting for the crumbs off the table of high-speed rail. Of course, words like irrelevant are hard to hear, but sometimes we all need a dose of reality to drive the urgency of the message home. I strongly believe that we must merge in order to organize, and grow, and expand our market share of the work, and improve the lives and livelihoods of those we represent. That's just what our forefathers did over 100 years ago, and we have been the beneficiaries of their wisdom. The delegates to the 43rd Grand Lodge Convention in 1998 understood our current situation well, and they unanimously passed two Resolutions mandating that I, as President, facilitate intense efforts to merge or affiliate the BMWE with another union. The need four years ago was that great, Brothers and Sisters, and the need today is even greater. That's why I, with the support of the Grand Lodge Officers, authorized our merger committee to reopen negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers, and Helpers. Our education program on Wednesday will overview the newly revised agreement. Each and every member deserves to understand exactly what this merger means to them, their families, their pocketbooks, and their future. So, I encourage you to review the merger documents you received at registration, and prepare for Wednesday's program with open minds, open questions, and open to learning more about the opportunities this proposed merger presents for the BMWE membership and their families. Make no mistake Brothers and Sisters, this is NOT the same tentative agreement that failed to ratify by a slim margin in 2001. This is a substantially improved and enhanced agreement that addresses virtually every concern raised during the ratification vote in 2001. Just like a national contract that fails to ratify, we have an obligation and a duty to go back to the negotiating table and address the issues and concerns brought forth by the membership. And that's exactly what we did. And that's exactly what our members would expect us to do. We owe our merger committee our gratitude and thanks for diligently and intelligently addressing the needs and desires of the membership. We owe our gratitude and thanks to our Boilermaker Brothers for their genuine and substantial efforts to address the issues raised by our committee during these negotiations. And, yes we also owe a degree of gratitude to those Brothers and Sisters who loudly and passionately voiced concerns about this or other possible mergers, concerns that have now largely been clarified and addressed in this revised and improved merger agreement. All of us, the so-called pro-merger side, the so-called no-merger side, and the Boilermakers' have contributed to the crafting of a merger that is good for the BMWE membership … good for the Boilermaker membership … and good for Rail labor and Organized Labor as a whole. I firmly believe we are poised to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, together. Brothers and Sisters, we have to be willing to fight together to build and grow our union. We have to fight for progress. We have to fight for new solutions. And we have to fight together, not fight each other. The great labor leader Samuel Gompers once said: "Men who will not fight together are traitors to each other. I am tolerant of differences of opinion. I am willing that everybody should have a hearing as any man should, but in the face of a battle, no division can be tolerated." We are in such a battle. In fact, the entire labor movement is in such a battle. And the enemy is certainly not within this room or within another union. The enemy is within those forces outside of the labor movement who are battling to suppress your wages, cut your benefits, contract out your work, and line their pockets with capital built by the sweat of your brow, and the blood of your dead. These are the challenges we face in the 21st Century, and we must meet these challenges together. My friends, there was a time, I wasn't there but I hear tell, when Pennsylvania had its own army and currency and sent its own diplomats to foreign nations. So did Georgia, and Virginia, and many of the other colonies. Some of the more visionary Founding Brothers got together and asked themselves, "Does this make sense anymore? Should we continue to be separate when we are, in fact, so much alike, where we share common territories, and face a common enemy?" And so they decided to come together, and merge, in order to better provide for their constituents, their membership. The story of America, is a story of a merger. America is history's greatest merger. Like our Founding Brothers, we need not fear the future, but rather we must create it. And I am confident we are up to the task. As we transform ourselves to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, we will shed old habits and learn new ones. We will retain our history, and create new history. We will embrace new Brothers and Sisters in a new and welcoming family. We can only ensure a prosperous future for our members by facing forward, not back. And we will do so in the spirit expressed in the very opening words of the United States Constitution, that great American Merger Document, which so solidifies this enduring merger. Those words are "In order to form a more perfect union." May God bless Canada, May God bless America, and May God Bless each and every one of you. Thank you.