Left to Right, Paul Swanson, Organizing Director, talking
with FEC Employes George 'Organizer' Holman and T. J. Fleming
BMWE Welcomes New Members - Organizing Wins on AGLF, G&F, FEC Railroads
"Everybody's so excited about the BMWE!" said Godfrey Brown, referring to
Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) employes, who, when the votes were counted on February
26, had chosen the BMWE to represent them. There were 128 eligible voters and 98 ballots
returned. Ninety-four voted for the BMWE, three were voided, and one voted for the BMWE
and an individual.
The Florida East Coast Railway, whose current name was adopted in September 1895,
operates a total of 442 miles of track from Miami all the way north to Jacksonville,
Florida.
New members on the FEC come under the jurisdiction of the BMWE Seaboard Federation,
General Chairman J. D. (Jim) Knight. Knight has filed a Section 6 Notice (based on a
survey of the membership) with the FEC and as this JOURNAL went to print, was in the
process of scheduling the first subordinate lodge meetings of the new members.
A week earlier, February 17, when the votes were counted, employees on the Atlantic
& Gulf (AGLF) and Georgia & Florida (G&F) railroads also became new members of
the BMWE.
The AGLF and G&F are short lines with headquarters in Albany, Georgia, and together
operate a freight service over a total of 204 miles of track. A portion of the AGLF has
been operating since 1870 and was sold to the present operator in 1991 by CSX. The
Southern Railway sold the G&F to the current operator in 1995.
New members on the AGLF and G&F will come under the jurisdiction of the BMWE
Southern System Division, General Chairman Gary L. Cox. Cox has filed a Section 6 Notice,
the first step in the bargaining process for a new contract, and the first official BMWE
meeting of the new members was planned for late March (after this JOURNAL goes to press).
The next issue of the JOURNAL will feature an article on these new members, called
"real go-getters" by Sam Alexander, Southern Vice Chairman, who worked on the
organizing campaign along with Mark Barbour, Norfolk & Western Local Chairman, Bill
Crisp, Southern Local Chairman, an in-house organizing committee of Michael Suggs, a
signal maintainer, Kelton Swannigan and Michael Williams, both track inspectors, all under
the coordination of Organizing Director Paul Swanson, assisted by Carl Stark, Staff
Assistant - Organizing and Tim McCall, First Vice Chairman on the Southern Pacific
Atlantic Federation.
"All the credit goes to the in-house committees," said Swanson, "we (the
BMWE Organizing Department) just provided them with some tools and education. We're as
excited as they are; their enthusiasm for the union is rejuvenating."
Swanson praised the work of those previously named in addition to Gary Hart, Ed Sams,
Clarence Former, Harry Robertson and the in-house committee on the FEC: Deryl Beckton,
Jerry Bell, Godfrey Brown, Rick Bullock, George Collie, Mark Ferris, Harvey Jones, Jim
Parker and Tom Taylor. |