RAILROAD LOCOMOTIVE ENGINEERS UNION MERGES WITH THE TEAMSTERS UNION

[Solidarity]

Members approve IBT merger

CLEVELAND, December 5 -- Members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers have overwhelmingly approved a merger with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, joining the largest and most powerful transportation union in North America.

Ballots were counted today and election results certified by the American Arbitration Association. The vote in the United States was 81 percent in favor of merging and 19 percent against with 47 percent of eligible members voting, and the vote in Canada was 62.4 percent in favor and 37.6 percent opposed with 56 percent of eligible members voting.

BLE members in Canada will now be members of Teamsters Canada and will be a part of the Canadian Rail Conference.

"The membership has spoken and we are pleased with their decision to merge with the Teamsters," BLE International President Don M. Hahs said. "Our members will soon see the benefits of belonging to the largest, most powerful, and politically influential transportation union in North America."

The merger will become effective on January 1, 2004, and the BLE will become the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET), a division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Rail Conference.

The addition of "Trainmen" to the name of the new organization is a significant step, BLE President Hahs said.

"The doors are now open and the structure in place," he said. "Throughout negotiations, it was our intent and the Teamsters' intent to allow the new organization to represent trainmen under the umbrella of the IBT Rail Conference. We welcome trainmen with open arms."
http://www.ble.org/pr/news/newsflash.asp?id=3852

As an former railroad worker and retired Teamsters I believe this is a positive development which I fully support. In the next year over 100,000 more railroad workers will in all likelihood join the Teamsters Union. About 40,000 members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (track and structure workers) will be voting on becoming members of the IBT. And about 87,000 railroad train crew and bus workers represented by the United Transportation Union will be raided by the newly formed IBT Railroad Conference and IBT Organizing Department.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (to be renamed the Brotherhood of Railroad Engineers and Trainmen) will be working with the IBT Organizing Department to impement the raid. The United Transportation Union officialdom does not have no raiding agreements with the IBT since it is no longer affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

[IrateCitizen]

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[Crewleader]

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[BigMcLargehuge]

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