Editorial

While many of us in UTU have had to endure the lack of character and morality of the "New Beginning" since before September 1, 1995, yesterdays (9/21) article entitle "Ble Dissident Officers Will Not Thwart This Merger" went beyond a "lot of gall" to unmitigated gall if not pure hypocrisy! Yes, there is at least one thing every member in UTU and Ble know, i.e., that railroad mergers " . . . has emboldened rail executives to demand more and more concessions from workers while rewarding themselves with cash bonuses and higher salaries. But there is another thing too few members of UTU and BLE know, i.e., that this so-called "union merger" has emboldened the union hierarchy to demand more and more concessions of member rights while rewarding themselves with these same cash bonuses and higher salaries.

Moreover, these concessions must be given immediately, as in right now, because the "emboldened" hierarchy has no intention of "renegotiating" the merger to the satisfaction of the membership. They have rushed this uninformed vote upon the membership fair and square and no BLE dissidents or a Federal Judge is going to stop "unity" (Power of One - the POO) or our "righteousness" (combine the ideals of Eugene Debs and the teachings of the Bible?)! As stated in the POO, Sacrosanct Charlie (or Sac-B) ain’t Eugene Debs, and close scrutiny of my Bible fails to find the "Book of St. Boyd"?

If there were such a "book" what would it teach us? Thou shall lie about your financial condition; Thou shall use "executive session" to get the desired result; Thou shall defend the misbehaving union officer rather than the member and the final and binding Board of Appeals decision, no matter thy cost to the members; Thou shall stand idly by while thy attorney misrepresents facts in order to punish one who had the audacity to catch you lying and cheating; Thou shall interfere with the accountability process by deliberately misrepresenting thy Constitution;Thou shall misrepresent facts whenever necessary to win; Thou shall humiliate those who disagree with you; Thou shall pay for thy room and food with thy American Express card and then accept $113 per diem for those same expenses; Thou shall leave thy House of Labor (AFL-CIO) whenever we don’t get our way; Thou shall have no other book EXCEPT THY BOOK OF ST. BOYD!

Yesterday, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that Yassir Arafat giving blood was the height of hypocrisy! I won’t disagree with that, but Byron Boyd’s article yesterday has to be a close second! It is an insult to the intelligence of UTU and BLE members in that it clearly suggests that the only good law (It’s the Law) is law that agrees with my position. Example, the election in Florida was stolen from Al Gore. Gee, and here I thought every recount of ballots done by the news media after the courts didn’t allow certain recounts, still showed Bush won Florida? In UTU it is a simple proposition, you either agree with everything the hierarchy does or you are Wrong! You have no right to free speech and when you do disagree with them, you are a dissident intent on destroying their Union (The Union is the "hierarchy", not the members). Yet, this "replacement killer" for the suave debonair Gambler from Texas is ready to risk decertification of both Unions on KCS to get the "POWER OF THE DIVERSE ONE (POODUMB hasn’t really changed, it is just more sensitive to its lack of diversity which has been handled in the usual manner, i.e., public relations spin and damage control)"!

It is unknown what will happen in Miami this week. Most likely result, whether Dubroski can survive election or not, is the BLE’s version of the war chest which will need to be significantly higher than the $5 UTU got by nullifying the democratic process! In essence, an unrestricted "arms race" because the leaders of these two unions don’t have the leadership to renegotiate a UAC that doesn’t rape the rights of the members while creating an over bloated, overpaid hierarchy!

Those few of you that have sent me "hate email" because I have likened Sacrosanct "little" bb to Osama bin Laden please don’t waste anymore of your time. I view bin Laden as a threat to civilization and democracy and I view UTU President Byron A. Boyd, Jr. as a threat to union democracy and rail labor! If you don’t understand why, then take the time to read the rest of this web site. As I understand how corrupt the "New Beginning" is and how badly both the Carriers and the Administration want the "Power of One", they may yet pull it off despite common sense, fact, reason, and law. If that happens, I believe it won’t take long to realize what a mistake we made and I shall then call Sac-B his Biblical name as documented in the "Book of St. Boyd" , i.e. ,