Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET)

In 2025, a BLET strike against New Jersey Transit shut down the nation’s third-largest commuter rail line for two days. ³

Background

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen is the oldest rail labor union in the country. It formed in 1863 in Detroit under the name Brotherhood of the Footboard. ¹ The union eventually merged with the Teamsters in 2004, renaming itself the BLET, after rejecting a proposed merger with the International Association of Sheet Metal Air, Rail, and Transportation (SMART) Workers. ^{1 4}

BLET president Edward A. Hall took office in 2023 after defeating longtime president Dennis R. Pierce in a closely contested election reportedly decided by fewer than 500 votes. ⁴

Pierce became president in 2010 after the union’s first direct membership election, and was unopposed for reelection in 2014 and 2018. ⁴ However, many union members were reportedly unhappy with the nationwide railroad contract agreement that Pierce had negotiated in 2022. While other rail unions declined to ratify the agreement, BLET’s members approved it in a 54 to 46 percent vote. ^{4 5}

Then-President Joe Biden (D) would later signed legislation imposing the agreement on the unions that had not ratified it, avoiding a national railway strike. ⁴

Activities

2025 New Jersey Transit Strike

In May 2025, roughly 450 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen members went on a four-day strike against New Jersey Transit, shutting down all New Jersey Transit commuter trains and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Metro-North Railroad West of Hudson service. An estimated 350,000 riders were affected by the strike, which shut down the nation’s third-largest commuter railway system. ^{6 7}

BLET publicly claimed that NJ Transit had refused to give BLET members a raise since 2019, but the agency explained that the union had rejected a national contract accepted by 14 other labor unions in 2021, the recommendations of two federally appointed labor boards, and that 87 percent of union members had voted to reject a tentative agreement reached between BLET leadership and NJ Transit. ^{8 9}

NJ Transit argued that the average BLET locomotive engineer earned $135,000 a year, with the highest-paid members earning more than $200,000, and that the tentative agreement BLET members had rejected would have increased the average pay to $172,856 by 2027. ⁹

According to NJ Transit, BLET’s salary demands would have cost $1.363 billion between 2025 and 2030, requiring a 17 percent fare increase, a 27 percent increase in the Corporate Transit Fee, or “drastic reductions to service systemwide.” ⁹

Norfolk Southern Leadership Vote

In 2024, BLET took the unusual step of siding with the activist investment firm Ancora’s efforts to elect seven directors and replace Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw. BLET represents engineers and trainmen employed by Norfolk Southern. ¹⁰

While Ancora was unable to ultimately secure enough votes to replace Shaw, he was fired by the company’s board later that year after he and the company’s chief legal officer were discovered to have been having “an inappropriate consensual relationship.” ¹¹

Controversy

Union President Corruption

In 2007, BLET president Don Hahs was accused by a Teamsters oversight board of embezzling $58,000 in union funds by having the union purchase tickets to Cleveland Cavaliers NBA games and other improper perks. He was removed from his post. ^{12 13}

In 2009, Hahs’ successor as president, Edward W. Rodzwicz, was indicted on federal bribery charges for allegedly accepting payments from personal injury attorneys to approve them to handle workplace injury cases for the union. ¹⁴ Rodzwicz later pled guilty to two charges and received an 18-month sentence in federal prison. ¹⁵