Willard E. Knight
Vice President
bletknight@gmail.com
Willard E. Knight is National Vice President of the 59,000-member Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Division of the Rail Conference, International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
He was elected by acclamation to the position of third-alternate vice president at the BLET's First Quadrennial Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2006, and was promoted to the BLET's Advisory Board on April 24, 2009.
Immediately prior to his elevation to the Advisory Board, Knight served as General Chairman of the BLET's Norfolk Southern-Eastern Region General Committee of Adjustment, a position he held for 18 years.
His railroad career began in 1969 as a fireman on the Norfolk & Western Railroad in Portsmouth, Ohio. He earned promotion to locomotive engineer in 1972 and first joined the Brotherhood on January 1, 1974. He is a member of BLET Division 511 in Portsmouth, Ohio. After joining the Brotherhood, he was elected Local Chairman of Division 511 in 1979, a position he held until he was elected General Chairman on January 1, 1992.
He also served the Brotherhood as a delegate to the 1996 quinquennial convention in Detroit, the 2001 quinquennial convention in Miami, and the 2006 quadrennial convention in Las Vegas.
As General Chairman, he was involved in Conrail merger negotiations in the mid-1990s and has participated in all on-property agreements on the Norfolk Southern. Those agreements have provided wage increases, quality of life improvements and important job protections for the members he represented. The innovative on-property agreement with NS was among the first in the country to tie membership wage increases to company performance. Most recently, he helped negotiate an agreement that contains an important scope rule that protects locomotive engineer jobs in the face of changing technology without sacrificing jobs in other crafts.
His father, Ernest Knight, worked for 42 years for the Norfolk & Western as a supervisor in the car department.
He and his wife Teresia Lynne have been married for 38 years. The couple has one daughter, Michele (husband Patrick), and two grandchildren: Brady, 7, and Creed, 4. During his free time, Vice President Knight enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and playing golf.
