MTAcre - If a tree falls in the ACRE, does ANYONE hear it ? is anyone listening ?

July 16, 2007

Dear Engineers:

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLE&T) feels the ACRE contract, which is now out for a ratification vote, is an inferior contract. The contract which ACRE officers initialed is wrought with financial mine fields for the future of their membership. The Coalition of non-ACRE unions signed and ratified a similar deal in March 2007. ACRE agreed to the very same deal in March. The Westchester Journal News reported this fact in April of this year. ACRE Local Division 9 waited until now to try and squirm off the proverbial hook. This tactic was not successful with the Carrier. So now it is time for ACRE Local 9 to try their luck with their membership on summer vacation. They are giving their members just two weeks to decide the next forty-one months of collective bargaining. The M-N Coalition, like ACRE, left out the juicy parts of their respective contracts. The part where they enhanced their personal pensions with the Carrier's salaries added to their Union salaries to the tune of $144,000.00 for the 2007 fiscal year. (See attached letters defining this windfall for Union Representatives). Yet, ACRE Local 9 will let the membership pay 8% a year for the final calculations for their Union Officers pensions. This was all done for the privilege of letting these union do-gooders pretend they represent us. The Coalition of non-ACRE unions was without a contract for five years. Seven hundred and forty (740) of the coalition members opted out of the defined benefit pension plan. They decided to stay in the Vanguard plan, which will be converted over to a 401 Plan. So what really was it all about for the Coalition membership, a Pension Plan or pay raises? ACRE Local 9 does not inform their members of this factual occurrence. ACRE officers also do not bring up the fact that there are only three Engineers paying medical costs on our property. Yet, we are all giving up three months of a six-month zero for the three Engineers. The other three months of the zero is for the so-called Retirement incentive to get Senior Engineers to retire. Only the 60-year-old members get the 100-day waiver incentive attached, to send our beloved motormen out to pasture. Is this an incentive or an elaborate smoke screen? This sidebar for early retirement ends on June15, 2010. The Teamsters elected to pay 2% of a flat 40-hour workweek towards their medical cost to keep the retirement age at 55 with 30 years of service. They rightfully did not want to split their workforce. The TWU took a strike, and paid a 4 million dollar ($4,000,000.00) fine and lost their MTA dues collection ability over this very same issue. Yet, here is ACRE Local 9 patting themselves “well done” on a deal worked out in March, which they unveiled in July. ACRE and obviously the M-N Coalition had no idea the Teamsters would come over the top and get a better deal. The last thing the MTA wanted was a strike. Mr. Silvera, the Teamster leader promised the MTA a strike if a favorable deal could not be reached. The very same Westchester Journal News reported that the Teamster deal “was 8% richer than the M-N Coalition deal that was ratified in March. Why would ACRE officers sign a lesser contract? SIMPLE! ACRE is and has always been a paid conduit of the Parent Company, the MTA. Gary Dellaverson is the chief negotiator for the MTA. He is very good at his job; he is the benefactor of monies, to support and provide protection for a ghost union that has soiled the union front on Metro-North property. Our membership is a huge joke in the Railroad Union Fraternity. The ACRE membership can no longer feign ignorance. “Ignorance is not innocence, it is a sin”. If the ACRE membership ratifies this deal, they will truly have consciously gone into the unconscious.

PLEASE MARK THE NO BOX ON YOUR RATIFICATION BALLOT.

• Ask yourself, why isn't the Conductor's deal not out for a ratification vote along with the Engineers?

• Ask yourself, with regard to the Conductors upcoming contract, about the Hostler issue. Tony Bottalico says he represents the hostlers on Metro North, yet there is no hostler roster. In his section six notice to the Carrier he asked for this work, Conductors crossing craft lines. Engineers historically did this work. Why has Mike Doyle remained silent on this issue?

ENGINEERS GOING FIRST IN THIS CONTRACT RATIFICATION!!!!!!! WHY?

Thomas Gleason

General Chairman

BLE&T Division 127