Train Engineers Just Ousted Their Union President for Supporting the Rail Deal
In the wake of the rail showdown, locomotive engineers have voted to boot their union president. It’s a stunning upset — and one that shows rank-and-file railworkers are still simmering at the contract that was forced on them.
A worker watches railcars with cargo containers go by at the Union Pacific Intermodal rail terminal in Salt Lake City, Utah. (George Frey / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In a stunning upset, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), the 28,000-member union of railroad workers, has elected a new president. Eddie Hall, a local officer out of Division 28 in Tucson, Arizona, won against incumbent Dennis Pierce with 53 percent of the membership-wide vote. Hall will take office on January, pending official certification of the results, and will lead the larger of the two unions that make up the Teamsters Rail Conference.
The surprise victory is the latest fallout from a national freight rail showdown in which some sixty thousand railworkers had a contract imposed on them. In the BLET, the second-largest union involved in negotiations, members ratified a deal, but many members were unhappy with the outcome.
In an interview, Hall said his election spoke to rank-and-file frustrations that leadership failed to listen to the membership throughout the negotiations. “We have a union, but [members] are not involved,” he said. “I’m hoping to get out and listen to the membership.”
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