The executive committee of the 38,000-member Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers will meet Oct. 3 in Washington, D.C., with its counterparts from the 1.4 million member Teamsters Union. A full merger of the two transportation workers organizations could happen by sometime next year, members say.

But even before a former merger, the Teamsters already are getting on the front lines with their soon-to-be brother members. At a rally Wednesday afternoon in downtown Fort Worth to protest the railroads' growing use of unmanned locomotives, Brent Taylor of Teamsters local 745 in Dallas told about 250 BLE members that use of unmanned locomotives by railroads is "ludicrous."

"Today, railroads are handling more and more radioactive and hazardous materials, and at a time when much of the transportation industry is preparing itself against terrorism, the railroad industry is taking a step back," Taylor said to the cheers of the railroad engineers.

The two major railroads serving Texas, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railroad, have each deployed about 40, 3,000-horsepower unmanned locomotives primarily to do switching in yards. The locomotives are maneuvered in yards by workers on the ground using hand-held controls.

BNSF has "a couple" of unmanned engines at its Alliance Airport switching yard, spokeswoman Chris Rabe said. Union Pacific has yet to bring any of the unmanned locomotives to its big Centennial Yard in Fort Worth, but UP spokesman John Bromley said, "they will eventually be used in Fort Worth."

The railroads have said they plan to use the unmanned locomotives only in yards and not over-the-road, a contention that BLE members have disputed. BLE national president Don Hahs of Cleveland, Ohio, told the rally, "the railroads are taking these things out on their systems, in spite of what they have said."

The BLE has protested the matter to the Federal Railroad Administration and has asked the National Mediation Service to provide mediation on the issue. Also, BLE legislative director Terry Briggs said that the union intends to ask the Texas Legislature to ban unmanned locomotives outside of yards.

The unmanned locomotive issue provoked a fissure between the BLE and the United Transportation Union, which represents most other railroad workers on train cares and in yards. While an engineer is required to take up to eight months of training before certification to run a locomotive, the UTU members who operate the remote-controlled trains can be certified with a two-week course.

The UTU's latest national contract with the railroads allows its members to operate the remote controls that run the unmanned locomotives, a move the BLE saw as a job-threatening labor betrayal.

"The UTU has stolen jobs, and its leadership needs to wake up," said Hahs to the cheers at the rally.

Dan Piller, (817) 390-7719

danpil@star-telegram.com