Tuesday, August 17, 1999, Davenport, Iowa, I&M Workers.

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Left, Josh & Valerie Wold, married six months. Wold has worked six months on the railroad. Right, Melissa & Andrew Altman, married a year and three months. Altman has worked two weeks on the railroad.

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Lodge 1902 Local Chairman Tom Goffinet, Greg Gibbons, Mark Wimmer, Jack Lieffort, John Parks.

I&M Rail Link is a 1,300 mile regional railroad running through five states, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin and connecting the Twin Cities in Minnesota, Chicago and Kansas City. The company is headquartered in Davenport, Iowa and is part of the Washington Transportation Group, which also runs the Montana Rail Link, headquartered in Missoula, Montana.

The Washington Group acquired the lines commonly known as the Kansas City and Corn lines from the Canadian Pacific Railway (CP Rail) in April 1997. The lines were formerly those of the Milwaukee Road, a company the Soo Line Railroad acquired in 1985. In 1988 CP Rail acquired full control of the Soo Line.

According to the December 31, 1998, seniority roster 116 maintenance of way employees moved from CP Rail to I&M. All have the same seniority date -- April 5, 1997 -- and are listed by minutes, i.e., 12:01, 12:02, etc.

Of the additional 45 new hires and 50 more hired in 1999, only a dozen or so were still working in August, estimated Jack Lieffort, Local Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer of Lodge 55 in Davenport, Iowa and Savannah, Illinois, one of the six BMWE Local Lodges exclusive to the I&M. (The others are 57, Marquette, Iowa; 412, Mason City, Iowa; 416, Austin, Minnesota; 1902, Ottuma, Iowa; and 1911, Chillicothe, Iowa.)

Lieffort was at a meeting held by General Chairman Mark Wimmer on August 17 in Davenport, Iowa to discuss various issues including the filing of a Section 6 Notice on I&M on September 1, 1999. The agreement with I&M expires April 5, 2000.

According to the BMWE system survey of I&M members, Wimmer reported, the number one demand was parity with other railroads. The number two issue was improved health care. Everyone at the meeting seemed to agree with the survey results.

"Old-timers took tremendous cuts in pay, some almost 18%," said Lieffort.

Another member said, "two years ago my wife took my son to the emergency room for food poisoning. The insurance company denied the claim. They said it was a pre-existing condition. It took this long to get them to pay and I still haven't seen a check."

And yet another said, "we've worked in weather that was 30 degrees below zero with the wind chill, stayed three and four in a room in a flea bag motel eating cold spaghetti-o's out of a can. This is 1998. We deserve better."

Another issue of great concern discussed at the meeting was manpower. "We work twice as hard because we have half as many people as we need," said Bruce Wold.

"Everybody was on probation when they started off, even the guys who came from CP," said another member, "and they gave some time off, disciplined others and fired some just before they came off probation. Last year we were so undermanned, so many people were falling out with heat exhaustion, we asked, we begged, them to hire more people. They didn't but they did hire contractors."

Other members said, "It's understood that these are the money trains. We were told if we hold up money trains there will be severe consequences. They told us, 'if you value your job, you will not stop the money trains.'"

"About a year or so ago a women was killed by a train and part of her body dragged down the track. Several maintenance of way workers came up on the scene. One of us had a cell phone and called security and the roadmaster. The roadmaster said 'you've got rock to dump, go about your business.' Somebody just died terribly and he didn't even come out. He acted like nothing happened. We saw him later and he asked us how come we didn't get more rock dumped. 'It's costing me money with the work train sitting there,' he said. We tried to tell him the track was shut down for five hours and we had to clean up the scene. He wouldn't listen."

The union is listening, said Wimmer and Assistant General Chairman Greg Gibbons, and we are working to see that all of these issues are addressed in the next contract. "But," said Wimmer, "you need to remember that I'm not the union, you are. I may be the steering wheel, but you're the boat. The union is more than a partnership, it's a brotherhood."

"Everyone needs to be involved," added John Parks, Lodge 1911 Local Chairman. "I was so angry about the last contract that I had to have more information, more answers. I wanted to insure that we as members had a voice in the next contract. And I got that information. I went to system joint protective board meetings and learned a lot. Now I know the system federation is working and what they have to deal with. Anybody can sit in the background and gripe. But we need to gain knowledge and understanding and then put it to work. Be involved."