BMWE - Journal Online

The BMWE Organizing Department created by the delegates to the 1994 Grand Lodge Convention, the funding of which was approved by the Grand Lodge Executive Board in February this year, is now up and running with the appointment of a Director and one Staff Assistant. A second Staff Assistant position is temporarily being filled on a part-time basis by rotation of several other applicants for the full-time position. Paul S. Swanson, Membership Mobilization Director since 1994, has been appointed as the first Director of the new department. Swanson, a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, now resides in Thornton, Colorado with his wife Kathy and their two daughters, Corissa and Laura. Swanson started with the Burlington Northern (the "Old Q") in April 1972 as a section man. He has held several lodge positions and was elected Assistant General Chairman in August 1984. Effective October 1986, he moved up to the position of General Chairman on the Burlington System Division, a position he held until he was appointed as the BMWE's first Membership Mobilization Director. Carl Stark, a member of Subordinate Lodge 1074, has been appointed as Staff Assistant-Organizing. Born in Sheridan, Wyoming where he now lives with his wife Joni with whom he has three sons, Steve, Travis, and Morgan, Stark grew up on a ranch in north central Montana. Stark started as a section man with the Burlington Northern Railroad in August 1971. He has held several subordinate lodge positions including Local Chairman, President and Secretary-Treasurer. Stark is a member of the Labor Party and was a representative from Wyoming at the Labor Party's founding convention in 1996. Stark has had experience working on organizing drives, including one with the United Mine Workers which successfully organized city workers in Sheridan. Recalling that after he first heard the "U" word (union) when he was six or seven years old, he asked his father what it was. His father, "who cowboyed all his life," told him, "It's a good thing. The little guys don't stand a chance unless they stick together." Although Swanson and Stark have already "gotten their feet wet" in preliminary organizing on several short lines, their primary task in the new few months will be researching potential targets for organizing new members into the BMWE. Their focus will be first on the rail industry but it is anticipated that in time, initiatives will be made outside the rail industry as well. All general chairmen have been asked to help identify organizing targets. Members can help too. If you have any information on non-union operators, please contact Paul Swanson at: phone (303) 280-1855; fax 303-280-1879; or write 10630 Cherry Street, Thornton, CO 80233-4541.




ONLINE VERSION	VOLUME 106 - NUMBER 8 - SEPTEMBER 1997