By Arren Kimbel-Sannit | Arizona Capitol Times
The message that Rep. Richard Andrade received seemed quite clear.
The Glendale Democrat was at his day job — he works as an engineer with the BNSF Railway — when somebody approached him in the yard.
“He came up to me and said, ‘Hey, just want you to know: Fort Worth called our superintendent and told us what you did. You need to watch out.’”
Andrade was first hired out with BNSF in 1994, and shortly thereafter became active with the United Transportation Union, which after a merger with another union would become SMART, or Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers. SMART has more than 200,000 members, so this is hardly uncommon. But most of those members are not elected to state legislatures, and as such, don’t end up with the power to craft legislation that could impact their employer or line of work.
(Subscriber content)
