In the early months of 1999, the BMWE will be publishing a survey that will appear in the Journal asking each member what our priorities should be during the next round. We will have to determine what our membership believes should be our goals when we bargain with the railroads. These surveys are critical, because they give direction to our negotiators as to what is most important to our members. And once we have that direction, we will develop a plan to obtain what you want. It is absolutely critical that you fill these out and send them back to us. When we act, we want to act for the membership as a whole, and not be driven by the goals and aspirations of some at the expense of the rest. Only with your active participation in this process are we able to accurately gage what is most important to the membership and obtain it.

While this process is going on internally, BMWE will attempt once again to coordinate bargaining with the rest of Rail Labor to the best degree possible. We know from the last round of bargaining that Rail Labor has a hard time sticking together, even though we would all obtain the best results if we coordinated bargaining. In this process BMWE will meet with the leaders of as many of the other crafts as are willing to work with us nationally, at the system level, at the local lodge level and at the membership level.

Once again, this will involve all of you getting involved. Whether we like it or not, the battle with the railroads to obtain decent agreements cannot be looked at as a football game in which union representatives are in a stadium playing against carrier representatives with the membership on the sidelines rooting for the home team. The members ARE the home team and the only strength that union representatives have at the bargaining table is the unity of the membership of their own union together with the membership of the other unions and the labor movement as a whole. Nothing less than that works. The only way working people win significant results against the massive resources of organized management is for all of us to be active in the fight.

This simply means that everyone has to carry his or her weight. The representatives are responsible for putting together the best strategic and tactical plan they can, taking their direction from the membership, making certain that reasonable avenues of input are available and carrying out the will of the membership. The membership must keep themselves informed of what the plan is, take whatever action is asked of them when the time comes and to provide the leadership with the best input they can provide.

As a union we must have a plan, but have the ability to nimbly and flexibly alter that plan to respond to unanticipated occurrences that are either positive or negative. When opportunity knocks, we must be quick enough to take advantage. When setbacks occur, we must take them in stride.

Unfortunately, the Railway Labor Act processes are intensely political and the moratorium expires in an election year. We are going to have to develop the relationships necessary to maximize the leverage of a 45,000 person union. We are part of Rail Labor and, unfortunately, Rail Labor in many instances is divided. This means that we must be allied with forces that will work with the BMWE even if other s in Rail Labor take actions which are harmful to the goals set for us by our members. For the most part, Rail Labor supports each other, although one craft has generally sided with the railroads against the interests of the membership of all Rail Labor. This matters, and we may well have to deal with that problem during this round, just as we had to deal with it during the last round.

And even when there is Rail Labor Unity and the active support of the AFL-CIO, we are still up against a powerful, intelligent, wealthy adversary -- the railroad industry. The railroad industry is angry over the last national round and has refused to honor some of the provisions of the 1996 national agreement. They know they can plead their cases to sympathetic arbitrators and courts and simply make up arguments why they needn't comply with provisions of agreements they make.

Their goals are to stretch out the bargaining process for as long as they can by manipulating the National Mediation Board and then, when proffers occur, to make agreements that their lawyers will figure out how to break. By using the NMB to lengthen the bargaining process, they try to postpone raises and give us lump sums with no quick wage hikes. And once proffers occur, they use their lawyers to take our issues out of the public eye and away from a situation where we have the ability to strike and/or lobby and put those issues before their parties (judges or arbitrators) many of whom are overtly hostile to working people and pro business. Additionally, they will use government agencies like the Surface Transportation Board to override agreements they make with us in an environment where we must take their actions to hostile arbitrators rather than have the right to self-help.

As I said at the beginning, we are one year away from another national round and we need to get prepared. Over the next year, BMWE will be preparing for this and we need each member to take part. I know from the last round that we can rely on each other and we will be successful in forging the unity necessary to get the best results we possibly can for ourselves and our families.