ONLINE VERSION	VOLUME 107 - NUMBER 1 - FEBRUARY 1998

	Fleming Re-elected to Third Term as Chairman of CRLO

"We, the several organizations of railroad employees, recognizing that through united action and interests of railroad employees, we are strengthened and better advanced through coordinated policy and cooperation on all matters of mutual interest; and that such united action is particularly essential in the area of health and welfare benefits for our members, do hereby adopt the following constitution and bylaws for the government of the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations." With that preamble, the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations was created in 1991 to insure that railroad employees have a strong voice in establishing and maintaining their health and welfare benefits. In 1992, BMWE President Mac A. Fleming was first elected Chairman of the Cooperating Railway Labor Organizations and charged with the responsibility of maintaining the quality and delivery of health care for the entire railroad population. Since his election in 1992, and re-election in 1994, the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan has taken on many faces under the provisions mandated in the imposed agreement based on Presidential Emergency Board 219. Through tough negotiations and persistence, the national health plan was guided in directions of quality and delivery for the membership, opening up managed care across the country in both health and mental health/substance abuse, as well as a breakthrough in offering the first-ever prescription drug card to the membership. "Health care has been under constant attack from all sides, however, the Railroad Employees National Health and Welfare Plan has managed to maintain most of its individuality and, at the same time, offer enhanced benefits to improve the lives of the membership," said Fleming, upon his re-election on December 9, 1997.