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It's not official, but it doesn't look good. After counting nearly 60 percent of ballots June 7, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen announced that 59 percent of members rejected a merger with Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (SMWIA).
BRS officials late Friday still were counting all returned ballots — which were mailed to members May 1 and due on or before June 6 — at the union's Mount Prospect, Ill., headquarters.
The union plans in about one week to release an official and final count, but BRS officials admit the margin is wide enough that any variation between preliminary and final counts wouldn't reverse the outcome, according to a news item posted June 7 on the union's Web site.
BRS in November reached a merger agreement with 150,000-member SMWIA, under which BRS' 9,400 members would've formed a railroad signalmen division within SMWIA's rail department, which currently represents 6,000 railroad and shipyard workers.