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To: All Grand Lodge Officers Elected
at the 43rd and 44th Quadrennial Conventions and all
System Officers in the United States and Canada From:
Paul Swanson Re:
My Dismissal As a Grand Lodge Appointee Date:
Dear
Sirs and Brothers:
I am writing this letter requesting your assistance to correct a
substantial injustice done to me by President Fleming.
The injustice is not that he dismissed me as Director of Organizing
approximately one month prior to the expiration of my term or that he failed to
reappoint me to that position for his next term.
He has the arguable right to take both actions.
I am asking your assistance because he failed to give me any indication
that there was any problems with my performance of my duties, carrying out his
instructions or even any philosophical differences between us.
In fact just the opposite was the case.
Prior to, during and immediately after the convention the only
discussions I had with President Fleming were the operations of the Organizing
Department. We discussed the setting up of the structure of the newly organized
Wisconsin Central membership, the pending IBB merger vote and an organizing plan
of action to present to the IBB in the event the merger vote is successful. During
all of these discussions President Fleming strongly indicated that I was going
to continue in my assignment and be involved in their implementation.
In fact the last discussion I had with him at
Additionally he lied to some of you prior to Convention and after
Convention regarding his intention to retain me and never informed any of us
that he would simply remove me from service prior to the beginning of his next
term. I have been advised by many
trusted friends in BMWE leadership position that President Fleming assured them
that if he was reelected he would continue the programs and operate the BMWE
just as he had in his previous administrations.
That included retaining the staff that he relied on to carry out those
programs and operations.
I served the International loyally and I and most of you believe,
skillfully, since April 1994 and believe that I was owed honesty if he felt we
should part ways. Simply because
President Fleming has the right to treat loyal and dedicated members/employees
in the most cavalier and dishonest manner possible under the law, a manner that
we would be up-in-arms about if the carrier treated our members in such a way,
does not mean he has the right to treat us in that manner under basic principles
of unionism or under the Constitution and By-laws.
On
As he has not talked to me, he has never returned my phone calls, I have
no clue why he took this action. I
have been told by others that they were told that it was because I supported a
dues increase for funding the Organizing Department.
I did support and campaign for that dues increase because I believe the
future of the BMWE requires an Organizing Department funded at a level that
could provide for real growth of the BMWE (or the BMWE Division of the IBB).
If my support for that dues increase is the reason for my dismissal I had
no instructions to not pursue that dues increase.
President Fleming and I spoke about that dues increase about three weeks
prior to the convention, he said “If I were you I would keep my head down at
the convention. There are a lot of
people opposing any dues increase and they may not appreciate my support for
one.” I told him it was important
and that if it was all right with him I would pursue it.
He never told me he would take my support for the dues increase as
insubordination.
It could not be because I opposed the IBB merger, I strongly supported it
the first time and I support it now. I
traveled thousands of miles and worked several weekends informing members at
meetings of the benefits of that merger. I
gave President Fleming advice early in the campaign that was ignored.
I suggested in the first merger campaign that we concentrate on getting
out the vote where our support by the leadership was strongest, to not waste
time where we did not have good day in day out contact with the members.
I urged him not to send it out too early, before the System Leadership
had time to mobilize their supporters.
It should not be because I did not publicly campaign for President
Fleming at the convention. I do not
believe appointees jobs are to publicly campaign for candidates for elected
office. Only two of the more than
dozen International staffers publicly displayed their support for any candidate.
Only two of those at the convention that did not publicly campaign were
dismissed, Sister Creswell and I.
I think most of you know the work I have done for the International.
My involvement in the internal organizing in the struggles for PEB 229,
saving Railroad Retirement Occupational Disability, attempting to get a better
Railroad Retirement Deal, saving Amtrak , trying to stop the Conrail Carve up
and many other international issues. I
also assisted many of you in local disputes, such as the SOO Line strike in
1994, CN’s attempt to gut the GT Agreement and many others.
With the limited resources the Organizing Department successfully
organized nearly 700 new members into the BMWE.
The FEC with more than 130 new members, a railroad that had a long
anti-union history, the Alabama, Georgia & Florida with nearly twenty
members, the Delaware & Lackawana a small railroad organized wall to wall,
the Iowa Interstate with more than twenty workers and finally the Wisconsin
Central with nearly 500 new members where we overcame years of bitter feelings
about unions in general and the BMWE in particular.
I cannot take all the credit, Brothers, Time McCall, Carl Stark, Mark
Barbour, Gary Hart and Sister Sue Creswell were vital to those organizing
victories along with countless local activists.
But I certainly was and have been a major contributor in all of those
organizing victories and struggles with the carriers.
Perhaps the most disappointing (no pun intended) part of all this is I
see a real opportunity for the BMWE to secure resources for organizing from the
IBB. I had begun putting together an
analysis of employers that would fit within the BMWE Division of the IBB and a
plan to organize them. If the merger
is voted in, I was going to ask President Fleming to present it to IBB President
Jones and request funding for it. Now
if such a plan is implemented, I will not be a part of the opportunity to grow
the BMWE.
Again I have no idea why President Fleming fired me.
Whatever his reason I still didn’t deserve the callous and vicious
immediate dismissal by mail. Having
performed dedicated service
to the BMWE receiving this outrageous treatment is simply being punished
for serving him and the BMWE loyally. Do
you really believe I deserve to have been treated in this manner, even if he had
the legal right to do so?
What I say for me regarding this cavalier treatment goes for Brother
Myron and Sister Creswell also. They,
too, were dismissed by letter, finding out about their dismissals when their
credit cards or phone cards no longer worked.
People who have provided dedicated and loyal services to the BMWE over a
long period of time do not deserve to be notified by mail and simply put out in
the street with no consideration. One
of the main reasons BMWE was organized was to stop such treatment by employers.
Even if he has the legal right to act in such a manner, he should not
base upon some legal mumbo jumbo. It’s
as simple as that and it’s a major infringement of basic principles of
unionism and how our union treats its own. He
evidently believes he has the right to lie to me and to some of you and to then
act in a manner that would embarrass some of the carriers our members work for.
He believes he can act in violation of basic principles of unionism and
the BMWE Constitution and By-laws. How
do you think he is going to act when he confronts things he doesn’t like
during his term of office?
As an appointee I have tried to avoid the political infighting and
internal disputes, those close to me know that has not always
been easy. Now that I
am no longer an appointee, I can say that we must move forward, sticking to the
principles of trade unionism. President
Fleming’s actions do not reflect those principles, more like the carrier
officials we must deal with far too often.
Running our union based upon intimidation and fear will simply lead us to
destruction. Each of you will
be facing some tough decisions in the near future.
I ask each of you to think like a trade unionist and not allow this union
to be lead through deceit, fear and broken promises.
I am going to go back to the ranks on the BNSF, hopefully in the
I fear that I will not be able to maintain close contact with many of
you. I do ask you that you contact
me for my side of the story if President Fleming starts putting out his version
of why he took the actions that he did. I
would really like to know what reason he puts out.
My home phone number is (303) 457-3960. In
solidarity, Paul Swanson |