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By a narrow margin, 60 conductors and trainmen at the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. (W&LE) voted in favor of being represented by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers & Trainmen (BLET) division of the Teamsters Rail Conference, according to election results certified by the National Mediation Board yesterday.

The workers at W&LE — the 10th regional or short line to choose BLET representation since 2001 — previously were represented by the United Transportation Union. BLET already represents about 90 W&LE locomotive engineers.

BLET recently won organizing elections at the Louisville & Indiana Railroad Co., and Portland & Western Railroad Co.

The 840-mile W&LE operates in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland, and interchanges with Canadian National Railway Co., CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. The regional moves about 130,000 annual carloads of coal, iron ore, steel, aggregates, chemicals, forest products and grain.