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Last week, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes' (BMWE) Canadian legislative directors approved a proposed merger with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Teamsters Canada by a six-to-one vote.

At their recent quadrennial meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the directors passed a resolution stating, "we will do whatever is requested of us as a group or as individuals to encourage our members to support this merger."

If approved by members, BMWE would become an autonomous division of the Teamsters' U.S. and Canadian rail conferences, which include the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

Many BMWE members already have voiced support for the proposal — 59 percent of U.S. and 35 percent of Canadian members polled in a fall telephone survey favored the merger — and the union has spent a lot of money to study the transaction, directors said in the resolution.

"The continued struggle over power of our union is only creating division within our organization instead of making us the power to be reckoned with that we all strive for," they said.