General Chairmen of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, Representing Members at Norfolk Southern, Address CEO Alan Shaw’s “Unfounded and Desperate” Attacks on Labor Discussions
03 May 2024 - 6:45AM
Business Wire
Nearly Half of the Company’s Unionized
Employees Support Jim Barber to Lead Norfolk Southern
The three Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen
(“BLET”) General Chairmen (Scott Bunten, Dewayne Dehart, and Jerry
Sturdivant), who are affiliated with the International Brotherhood
of Teamsters and represent members at Norfolk Southern Corporation
(NYSE: NSC) (“Norfolk Southern”), issued the following
statement:
“Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw is falsely accusing Ancora and
two out of the three largest rail unions – the BLET and the BMWED,
who collectively represent 41.5% of the railroad’s unionized
workforce – of violating the Railway Labor Act and negotiating
‘backroom deals’ at the expense of shareholders. Mr. Shaw chose to
ignore the fact that both unions are not only stakeholders, but
each also represents large numbers of shareholders, who want to see
the company succeed. He made his ungrounded and desperate claims
after it became public that positive discussions were held between
Ancora nominees with officers of the two Teamsters affiliates.
In another act of desperation, Norfolk Southern issued a press
release misrepresenting the record of Jim Barber, an Ancora nominee
and long-time partner to unions. Mr. Barber has not only
demonstrated positive relationships with labor here, but also had
direct experience driving productive engagement with the Teamsters
while COO and President of International at UPS. In fact, the
largest private sector collective bargaining agreement in the
United States is the UPS-Teamsters National Master Agreement.
Desperate statements and inconsistent and shifting strategies
characterized much of what BLET’s union leaders have heard from
Norfolk Southern’s current CEO in recent weeks. This is why BLET’s
leaders chose to switch their support to Ancora after meeting with
Mr. Barber and its nominees. We suspect this is why other investors
and rail unions are likely to follow."
Scott Bunten, Dewayne Dehart, and Jerry Sturdivant, the three
General Chairmen representing BLET members at Norfolk Southern,
made this additional joint statement:
“Although we initially supported Mr. Shaw and Norfolk Southern’s
management in this contest, today he leads a different team with an
unproven strategy. The ever-changing and inconsistent policies that
we have been hearing from the railroad’s current leadership in
recent weeks forced BLET to take another look at Ancora and its
nominees. We ultimately made a final decision to support the Ancora
slate and CEO choice. Alan Shaw’s unfounded attacks this week have
further convinced us that we made the correct choice.”
About the BLET
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET)
represents more than 51,000 professional locomotive engineers and
trainmen throughout the United States. The BLET is the founding
member of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of
Teamsters. Founded in 1863, BLET is the nation’s oldest trade
union. For more information about BLET, please visit
https://ble-t.org/.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240502854409/en/
For BLET: Jamie Horwitz 202-549-4921
jhdcpr@starpower.net
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