INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, will retire effective May 1, 2025, the union has announced.
Hall, BLET president since Jan. 1, 2023, announced his retirement at an April 23 meeting of the union’s Advisory Board in New Orleans. His decision was announced today (April 24).
Mark Wallace, the union’s first vice president, will become the new president under BLET bylaws, while the BLET board has voted to elevate Vice President Gary Best to become first vice president.
Hall began his railroading career in 1995 with Southern Pacific, became an engineer in 1998, and joined the BLET in 1999. After serving as a local officer for the union in Tucson, Ariz., Hall became national president in December 2022, unexpectedly defeating incumbent Dennis Pierce. While the BLET initially planned to rerun the election in the wake of a protest, Pierce chose to retire, opening the door for Hall to assume the union’s top office [see “BLET president to retire …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 16, 2022].
Wallace, first vice president since Jan. 1, 2023, is a Norfolk Southern engineer and has served in national positions since 2014. He becomes the 25th president in the union’s 162-year history. Best, an engineer with CSX, became national vice president on Jan. 1, 2023, and had previously spent nine years as general chairman of the CSX-Eastern Lines General Committee of Adjustment.
