3,000 CN track workers join Steelworkers

UNITED STEELWORKERS OF AMERICA NEWS RELEASE

*********************** CN track workeers vote yes to joining United Steelworkers

WINNIPEG, MB - More than 3,000 former Canadian members of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE) at Canadian National Railway (CN) have voted to be represented by the United Steelworkers in a mail-in ballot counted Friday at the offices of the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) in Winnipeg.

The vote was between the Steelworkers' and the Teamsters' unions, following a lengthy campaign among the workers, who maintain and repair CN rail lines across Canada.

Steelworkers' National Director Ken Neumann said the vote is a major victory and he thanked the many people who worked over the last year to bring the Steelworkers' message to BMWE members, many of whom work in isolated and remote locations.

"This was a complicated and difficult campaign," said Neumann. "But the vote was important to ensure that the workers were able to exercise their democratic right to choose which union they wished to join.

"We are delighted to welcome them into our union and look forward to negotiating with CN."

The United Steelworkers already represents some CN employees and about 1,700 CP Rail employees, who work as crew dispatchers, operators of intermodal terminals, storespersons, accounting centre staff, freight claims adjusters and other jobs throughout the system.

The Steelworkers applied for certification at CN in December 2003.

Two months later, the Teamsters did the same.

Months went by, with the Steelworkers' lobbying for a CIRB-supervised vote.

The balloting finally got underway on October 6 and ran through November 17.

The addition of the CN track workers will increase the Steelworkers' membership to about 255,000 men and women working in every sector of Canada's economy.

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