Under the Railroad Retirement Act, the president appoints the three-member board. One member is appointed from a list of management-recommended candidates, one is appointed from a labor-recommended list, and the chairman is appointed independent of both those lists.

Evidence early on that Bower was abusing his position to help rail management weaken the retirement system, caused rail labor to begin calling for his resignation in late 1991. This was after several incidents in which Bower wholly disregarded labor's position on key issues and rubber stamped the requests of the management member.

"Bower is supposed to act in the public interest, but he isn't," said Fleming at the time. "By siding so deliberately with management, Bower is acting with reckless disregard for both the letter and the spirit of the Railroad Retirement Act. We cannot and will not stand for this kind of treatment."

In the years following, rail labor vigorously fought for Bower's removal as he continued to demonstrate a clear pattern of bias by ignoring labor and siding with management to the detriment of the Railroad Retirement system.

The BMWE was always in the forefront of this fight and all members will not soon forget their justified pride in their commitment to this fight, amply demonstrated by their willingness to strike nationally in January 1997. These efforts resulted in saving Railroad Retirement occupational disability benefits from being destroyed.

"I think we can all be proud of the tireless efforts all of us within the BMWE have made in ridding ourselves of one of the most anti-labor individuals to ever occupy the chairmanship of the Board," said Fleming. "I commend each and every one of you for standing tall and remaining united as we endeavor to protect and improve our retirement benefits." Fleming also thanked Vice President Al Gore (who he personally met with on several occasions to discuss this matter) and AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who were influential in helping achieve the final outcome

In December, President Clinton announced his intention to nominate Cherryl T. Thomas as Chair of the Railroad Retirement Board. "By all accounts received thus far," said Fleming, "Ms. Thomas should bring a truly neutral balance to the Board. We are presently optimistic that she will exercise the wisdom, judgement and restraint so lacking in former Chairman Bower."

As a parting shot, however, lame duck Bower along with the management member, proposed an anti-labor regulation that would severely cut back procedures for giving service credit to rail employees who have been injured on their rail jobs. This will be the last Bower proposal meant to save the railroads money at the expense of disabled employees.

The BMWE, as well as the labor member of the Board, V. M. "Butch" Speakman, and the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department, have all submitted comments in opposition to this proposed rule change (20 C.F.R. § 211.3). As further developments occur in this last attack by Bower, they will be reported in the Journal.