Today
Planned Event
06/07/2009 03:11:28
UP has about 350 furloughed trainmen in the Los Angeles, San Bernardino area and its still getting worse each month.
BLET Division 96 Chicago
- Chairman: Local Committee of Adjustment
- Douglas W. Davidson/Mike Abel starting 2010 update
- Phone: 847-424-8423
- Fax: 847-424-8527
- E-Mail: d.w.davidson@sbcglobal.net
Elected officers for Division 96 will be posted next update along with contact e-mail and phone numbers.
National Division Responsibilities
Doug Davidson
National Arbitration Division
Doug Davidson is the Assistant Director of Arbitration for the BLET national Division and represents the organization as the Labor Member on the National Railroad Adjustment Board (NRAB). As Assistant Director of Arbitration, he reports to Vice President and Director of Arbitration Marcus Ruef. His job duties fall into three categories: training, support resource and arbitration advocacy. He serves on the teaching faculty at all Local Chairman and General Chairman workshops conducted jointly by the BLET Training & Education Department and the Arbitration Department. Additionally, he and Vice President Ruef conduct education and training sessions on various representation topics, including a mock arbitration hearing with a real-life referee at General Committee Meetings and Regional Meetings. Brother Davidson serves as a support resource for general chairmen, local chairmen and an occasional member. He is now responsible for responding to the locomotive engineer certification hotline. Finally, he practices arbitration. He writes submissions, referee memorandums and advocates on behalf of the Brotherhood during oral hearings and Executive Sessions at the First Division, NRAB. As a Labor Member of the NRAB, he serves on the tribunals which decide the discipline and contract rule cases brought by BLET membership. He is also responsible for the Organization's portion of administrative duties at the NRAB, including the selection of referees, deadlocking and scheduling of cases, the adoption of the awards and overseeing correspondence between NRAB and the parties. He also heads up the NRAB's Railroad Training for Arbitrators class, which takes referees out in the field for railroad operations training.
Brother Davidson grew up in Evanston, Ill., and went railroading 36 days past his 18th birthday in 1973. He became a road brakeman for Chicago & North Western (now Union Pacific) in 1976 and transferred to the craft of fireman in 1978. He earned promotion to locomotive engineer in June 1980 and immediately joined Division 96 of the BLE. In 1988, his local chairman resigned and Brother Davidson was appointed by the division president to fill the remainder of the term. He was reelected in 1989, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2007. He also served as a delegate at four BLE International / National Conventions (1991, 1996, 2001, 2006) and as a delegate to the IBT Convention in 2006, representing Union Pacific Northern Region engineers. He was hired by the National Division on July 1, 2006, and was appointed to the NRAB on September 1, 2006. Brother Davidson resides in Evanston, Ill., with Annie Davidson, his wife of 28 years. The happy couple have two adult children, daughter Sophie and son Floyd. He is also a noted photographer with many prints/slides of the former C&NW RR.
