Marcus J. Ruef
Vice President
mjruef@ble-t.org
Marcus J. Ruef is a vice-president of the 59,000-member Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a Division of the Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He was elected to a four-year term of office at the BLET's First Quadrennial Convention, held in Las Vegas, Nevada, in June 2006.
His railroad career began the day after his high school graduation in 1973, when he was hired by the Penn Central Railroad as a block operator. He worked in the interlocking towers on their Metropolitan Region between New Haven, Conn., and Mt. Vernon, N.Y. In 1976, he was entered into engine service and joined BLE Division 77 in New Haven the same year, working essentially the same territory. He earned promotion to Locomotive Engineer in September of 1978.
After The Northeast Rail Services Act (NERSA) divided the territory in 1983, he ended up working for Metro North. During his time in the Northeast, he attended college and ultimately graduated from Cornell University's New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations with a BS in Labor Relations. In 1985, he transferred to Norfolk Southern, where he spent several years as an officer in their Labor Relations Department, and settled as an engineer on the Washington District (where he currently hold his seniority and belongs to Division 143) working primarily road service between Hagerstown, Md. and Manassas, Va., until hired full-time by the BLE in 1997.
Immediately prior to his election as Vice President, Brother Ruef worked for the BLET's National Division as Rick Radek's Assistant in the Brotherhood's Arbitration Department. He held the post from January of 1997 until winning election to the office of National Vice President in June 2006.
Since 1997, he has served the Brotherhood as one of two Labor Members of the National Railroad Adjustment Board - First Division. He also spent many years serving Division 143 in Manassas, Va., as their Legislative Representative and as First Vice Chairman and Secretary Treasurer of the Virginia State Legislative Board.
