INDEPENDENCE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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/.