We demand a national contract with real gains which will set an example for workers everywhere.
If workers had control of the situation, the outcome in East Palestine, Ohio, would have been entirely different.
As far as management is concerned, the “contract” is only binding on us workers. They feel emboldened because they know they have not only Congress on their side, but the union apparatus.
All rail worker supporters are urged to attend Tuesday’s meeting at 7 Eastern, where they will hear from railroad workers and their allies in other industries.
The resolution, adopted on Wednesday, states, “As representatives of rank-and-file rail workers, we declare that, as far as we are concerned, there is no contract, whether Congress passes legislation or not.”
With the vote, the next stage of the fight begins. Under conditions where the rail carriers have refused to give up anything for three years, there is no avenue left for railroaders to win their demands except by launching a powerful national strike to bring the carriers to their knees.
If Congress intervenes to violate our rights and force us to work under this contract, then the response of workers must be a general strike to force them to back down.
The patience of 120,000 railroaders is at an end. They are tired of being bureaucratically denied their constitutionally protected right to strike by an unaccountable bureaucracy working with the carriers and Washington.
The experience in other unions shows that the union apparatus cannot be trusted to conduct a fair and impartial vote.
BMWED members have not only voted against a contract but the entire state-controlled, pro-business framework in which the union apparatus is embedded. It is a vote of no confidence in the union negotiators and expresses the determination of workers to launch a national strike to bring the carriers and their government backers to their knees.
This statement was issued by the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee (RWRFC), which has been established by railroad workers to organize and unify their struggle independently of the union apparatus.
This statement was issued by the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which has been established by railroad workers to organize and unify their struggle independently of the union apparatus.
This statement was issued by the Railroad Workers Rank-and-File Committee, which has been established by railroad workers to organize and unify their struggle independently of the union apparatus.
The failure to reach an agreement at last week’s National Mediation Board talks are a sign that we railroaders are in as powerful a position as we have ever been. We must use every hour remaining to us to organize to demand a strike on September 16!
It must be said openly and clearly: The unions have every intention of blocking a strike. Therefore, we must organize ourselves independently in order to demand and force a strike.
