We continue to receive inquiries about statements made by BLET members who have allowed themselves to become unwitting pawns in BLET’s desperate attempt to raid UTU membership. Apparently, BLET’s strategy is to offer cut-rate dues to UTU members, and if questioned as to how those cheap dues will affect their representation, simply tell those UTU members whatever they want to hear, whether it’s true or not. Here are just a couple of the more outlandish statements recently reported to us:

1. “Ground service employees who leave the UTU and join BLET still have a legal right to vote on UTU contracts.” This is absolutely false, and it is as ludicrous as suggesting that an American who renounces US citizenship and becomes a citizen of another country still has a legal right to vote in US elections. Even if BLET circulates some kind of “ballot” among its ground service members relative to a UTU contract, those ballots will not be counted in the ratification process and will have no bearing whatsoever on the outcome of the voting. For ground service employees, the only thing BLET membership guarantees is that they have no voice, no vote, and no participation in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements that will impact their and their family’s future.
   
   
2. “Ground service employees who leave the UTU and join BLET still have a legal right to attend UTU meetings.” This is also false. Any fraternal labor organization has the right to determine whether or not outsiders are permitted to attend their meetings. UTU meetings are for UTU members, and outsiders have no right to attend those meetings or otherwise participate in UTU affairs. In fact, under Article 45 of the UTU Constitution, one of the duties of UTU members is “…to keep from outsiders the private proceedings of the United Transportation Union…” Again, the only thing BLET membership has to offer ground service employees is silence and irrelevance in the representation of their craft.

We do not know whether this misinformation is being intentionally assimilated by BLET leadership or if it is simply a matter of ignorance on the part of the individual BLET members involved. Whatever the source or reason, this kind of false propaganda may lead ground service employees looking to save a few dues dollars down a dead-end path.

The moratorium barring notice of changes to the current UTU National Agreement expires on November 1, 2004, less than 90 days from this posting. Any ground service employee who wants to have any voice in the development of a new contract or who wants to cast a ballot to determine the outcome of ratification of any new ground service contract proposal must be a UTU member when these important events occur. Otherwise, they will have traded these valuable rights for the temporary pittance they will save in monthly union dues to the BLET.