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Today's the day for Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen members: Ballots are due June 6 to decide the fate of the union's proposed merger with Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association (SMWIA).
BRS officials plan to count the ballots June 7 at 9 a.m. at the union's Mount Prospect, Ill., headquarters.
The union plans to post preliminary and official results on its Web site (www.brs.org) as soon as they're available, and publish results in July's Signalman’s Journal Update.
If a majority of members approve the merger, union delegates would consider the issue at BRS' annual convention to be held July 29-Aug. 2 in Las Vegas; delegates' endorsement would clear the proposal's final hurdle.
BRS in November reached a merger agreement with 150,000-member SMWIA, under which BRS and its 9,400 members would keep autonomy, enabling signalmen to continue representing members of that craft in collective bargaining and arbitration cases.
SMWIA would create a railroad signalmen division within its rail department, which currently represents 6,000 railroad and shipyard workers, and assign a full-time organizer to the division to help reverse declining membership.
BRS President Dan Pickett would become the rail department's director and an SMWIA vice president; BRS vice presidents would become international representatives.