February 15, 2010: Officials from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Trainmen and Engineers in the IBT (BLET) are getting closer to their goal: to take away members’ Right to Vote for top BLET officers.

To clear the first hurdle, the officials are trying to get divisions representing 25 percent of BLET membership to approve their initiative.

Unofficial reports say that they’re about halfway there.

Officials announced their initiative back in December, and many rail experts expected them to clear that first hurdle by now.

What slowed them down? The members, voting the proposal down overwhelmingly in divisions from New York to El Paso, Delaware to Illinois.

But officials have still have until June 1 to hit their target. If they succeed, then the initiative will go to the entire membership for a vote.

If officials hit the 25 percent mark, the entire membership of the BLET will get a chance to vote on their proposal.

Members won the Right to Vote in 2006. The first-ever one-member, one-vote election for BLET officers is scheduled for this Fall.

The officials want to pass their initiative before that vote ever happens. You can bet the other side is out organizing to get the extra divisions they need.

Members can stop them. Here’s what you can do to protect the Right to Vote:

• Download the NEW flyer and distribute it to members.
• Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of the Right to Vote page on Facebook—and invite other BLETers to become fans by clicking on the “Share” link in the left-hand column.
• Ask members to sign the petition to save our Right to Vote. BE SURE to ask members to write down their email address—that’s our number one way to communicate with members.

What are you doing to protect the Right to Vote? Click here to send a message to the TDU Rail Chapter.