It was at that Convention that we passed Resolution 42 -- telling the world that we will not simply be crushed by backward government, unfair anti-labor courts and bad contracts without fighting back as our forefathers fought. It was at that Convention that we as a Brotherhood joined Labor Party Advocates, which subsequently became the U.S. Labor Party -- letting the major parties know that if they wouldn't adopt a pro-labor agenda that Labor would find a political party that would. And it was at that Convention that we, at all levels of the Brotherhood, from the local lodge level to the system level to the international level put together the best fight we could -- developing the blueprint for the round of bargaining that ended with the best contract our members have seen in two decades.

And now, once again, our best and brightest will meet to do the business of the Brotherhood -- to develop another plan to bring us into the future. Momentous events have occurred over the past four years. Perhaps the biggest change that has occurred is the election of the Sweeney/Trumka/Chavez team to lead the AFL-CIO. The BMWE was and is a major supporter of the new leadership team and I was fortunate enough to become a member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council.

The Sweeney team has changed the face of organized labor, much in the way that the delegates to the 42nd Quadrennial Convention changed the face of the BMWE. Recognizing that all workers were suffering from the same problems that we in the BMWE suffered -- a sea of deteriorating real wages, working conditions and benefits -- the Sweeney team (of which the BMWE is a proud part) awoke the sleeping lion that is the U.S. Labor movement.

Functioning in a creative and brilliant manner, the Sweeney/Trumka/Chavez-Thompson team led countless demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins and brought the Labor movement back. John Sweeney became the first AFL-CIO President ever to testify for Rail Labor at our Presidential Emergency Boards. John Sweeney, Rich Trumka and Linda Chavez-Thompson coordinated the entire might of the AFL-CIO behind our legislative and bargaining efforts to make certain that our members obtained the best contract possible. And we struck a responsive chord with them, just as they struck a responsive chord with us because we were all involved in the same fight and had the same objectives. The new cry of the U.S. Labor movement was to listen to the membership, learn from them and then serve them. This is true in the BMWE and it is true in the AFL-CIO.

This doesn't mean that the forces of corporate greed have been sleeping or that backward forces within the U.S. Labor Movement and even the Rail Labor Movement have not fought back. They have fought in Congress, in the Courts and at the various agencies to increase their profits and executive compensation at our expense. When we win in one arena they go to their friends in high places to reverse what we have won.

We have watched the courts simply manipulate law in order to decide cases against Labor. We have suffered from the impact of the decisions of the STB who have granted the railroads the right to abrogate collective bargaining agreements, even recently negotiated ones while they allow the railroad industry to become dominated by monopolistic railroads. They grant merger authority and support such decisions even when it cripples whole regions of the country and brings billions of dollars of harm to the U.S. economy.

The STB does this knowing the history of the members of its predecessor agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission -- a history in which former ICC Commissioners and key staff obtained incredibly lucrative positions with rail management after rendering decisions hostile to labor and supportive of railroads while they serve as public servants with the ICC and the STB. And as a result of this our members on the BNSF have suffered and our members on CSX, NS and Conrail -- on CN/IC may well suffer.

Although we have come a long way and have won many fights, we must still put our heads together at this Convention and come up with a plan for the next four years. We must develop a plan to preserve Railroad Retirement, obtain a good contract, and to stop the railroads from being able to use the courts, Congress and the agencies to take from us what we win at the bargaining table.

And so I welcome each and every one of you to the 43rd Quadrennial Convention of the BMWE. You are the Union -- its most important asset. We will meet again, plan together and walk away from this Convention united with an understanding of what role we each must play in order to provide better lives for our families. And we will have the full support of the AFL-CIO.