| Robert Blomgren — Assistant State Director, UTU Illinois Legislative Board
 Bob Blomgren was born and raised in Chicago’s southwest suburbs and currently lives in Orland Park. Although he’s the first in his family to work as a railroader, he’s far from the first to work at a unionized trade. Many of his relatives have been employed in unionized industries, and when Bob was still young they sent him two clear messages: It’s important for a worker to be represented by a strong union, and it’s important for a worker to become active in his union’s activities.
In 1998, before he joined the railroad, Bob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Physical Education from Eastern Illinois University. Today you may find him on a baseball diamond playing in an amateur men’s league. He’s held a teaching certificate from the State of Illinois and is qualified to work as a teacher in any state-certified school. But when he heard the Union Pacific Railroad was hiring, the allure of working on the railroad was just too strong to pass up.
Bob hired out on the Chicago Service Unit of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1998 as trainman. In 1999 he qualified as through-freight conductor on UP’s historic Overland Route between Chicago and Clinton, Iowa. Bob also qualified as a passenger conductor and currently works on Metra’s UP West line between Chicago and Elburn, in Kane County. Unlike some railroad employees, Bob is able to shift between freight and passenger work because Metra trains on the UP actually are operated by UP under a purchase-of-service agreement.
Once he settled into the lifestyle of a railroad employee, Bob realized that this type of work poses special challenges to an employee’s health and well-being: Working hours can be irregular, unusually long and subject to change at a moment’s notice, endangering the employee’s health and safety and forcing painful adjustments in family life. He came to understand the importance of getting involved in union activities and attending local meetings, and grew to realize the importance of the legislative process in providing railroad employees protections through state government.
After attending meetings for a few years Bob realized he wanted to become more involved in the union’s legislative work. When a union office became vacant in 2002 due to retirement, he ran for the position and was elected Alternate Legislative Representative of Local #577. When the Legislative Representative retired in 2003, Bob ran and successfully won again. The members strongly approved his job performance and reelected him by acclamation in 2007. In that same year, the leadership of his Local appointed him to serve as a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor. In 2008, the UTU Illinois Legislative Board elected him Alternate State Director by acclamation, and in May of 2009 Bob filled the vacancy of Assistant State Director. A position made available when then Asst. State Director Bob Guy assumed State Director responsibilities.
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