AFL-CIO top leadership joined with Rail Labor in exacting a promise late last year from the Clinton/Gore Administration that it would not reappoint Morgan. Vice President Gore was personally involved in the meetings with Rail Labor and top AFL-CIO leadership and the promise not to reappoint Morgan occurred directly after such a meeting. In the months following, however, Gore and his staff ignored repeated requests by highest level AFL-CIO and Rail Labor leadership to keep their promise and block the anti-labor Morgan.

Shortly after the renomination, the BMWE Northwest Regional Association as well as the Pennsylvania Federation passed resolutions calling on BMWE President Mac A. Fleming to use his influence as an Executive Council member of the AFL-CIO to have the AFL-CIO hold any endorsement of Gore for president unless and until this matter is resolved favorably to labor.

Linda Morgan has hurt working people by allowing railroads to unilaterally break collective bargaining agreements. At the helm of the STB throughout the recent years of disastrous mega mergers, she has been instrumental in continuing and expanding the policies of President Reagan's Interstate Commerce Commission which interpreted the Interstate Commerce Act in a manner that allowed the agency to break contracts when approving those mergers which have caused extreme harm to a huge number of our members.

Morgan can also be called the mother of the Conrail Carve-up -- she publicly suggested that the friendly merger of Conrail and CSX would be disapproved by the STB, leading the way to the carve-up by Norfolk Southern and CSX.

Additionally, the STB has regularly, over the long and loud objection of rail labor, interpreted the Interstate Commerce Act in a manner which forces arbitrators who decide merger cases to render opinions (which are final and binding) which result in the modification or abrogation of our agreements and also short circuits the bargaining process between the BMWE and the carriers as depicted in the Railway Labor Act.

In a July letter to President Clinton, Representative James L. Oberstar (D-MN) expressed his serious concerns about Morgan's reappointment and questioned "her adherence to the values for which [Clinton's] Administration stands" because for one thing, she "has developed policies which strike at the heart of working people's rights to collective bargaining."

Oberstar also noted that under Morgan's leadership, the STB has ignored the interests of rail customers in decisions on mergers and competition. "STB's approval of the Union Pacific/Southern Pacific merger came in opposition to comments received from the Department of Justice, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Agriculture. ... The results of that decision are now plain. The collapse in Union Pacific's service in 1997-1998 has been attributed by most independent observers to the merger with Southern Pacific. ... Ms. Morgan's decisions to approve the merger is totally inconsistent with the policy of your Administration that an industry exists to serve its customers, not the other way around."

" ... Finally, during Ms. Morgan's term the STB has been unresponsive to the concerns of towns and cities that have faced adverse safety and environmental effects of railroad mergers," wrote Oberstar. "Towns and cities have requested that conditions be attached to mergers to protect the environment and the safety of their citizens, but the Board has generally ignored these requests."

President Fleming is urging every member to add their voice to that of the leadership by contacting their Senators and Representative and letting them know that Morgan's reappointment must be blocked. See the President's Perspective in this JOURNAL.