BMWE Canadian Legislative Directors Support Merger

with IBT and Teamsters Canada

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees have, in Canada, by Constitution, a legislative department comprised of legislative representatives, legislsative directors and a Grand Lodge Vice President in charge of legislative matters. 

The Legislative department in Canada deals with governmental issues, including, but not limited to, legislation, Workers Compensation matters (CSST in Quebec), disability cases, railroad safety and many other issues of concern to railroaders.

There is a legislative representative directly elected for each local lodge in Canada,  by the members in good standing of that lodge.  Every four (4) years, the elected representatives of each respective Province in Canada, where we hold jurisdiction, assemble to elect the Legislative Director, from their body, for that Province.

On April 29, 30 and May 1st, 2004 the Legislative Directors held their own quadrennial meeting in Winnipeg, MB. In the early afternoon of the April 29th meeting day, Teamsters Canada Assistant to the President, Francois Laporte spoke to the Legistive Directors about the Teamsters Canada organization.  Brother Laporte refused to speak negatively about the United Steelworkers of America, but instead, spoke on the positive benefits which will be jointly realized by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees when our organizations are merged. 

Brother Laporte also thoroughly answered any and all questions put to him, which varied from topics such as elections and bargaining all the way to dues structure, and he was clear in the fact that the majority of issues will be decided by the Maintenance of Way members themselves, as Teamsters Canada is a democratic organization, driven from the bottom up, not vice versa.  

Following the discussion about Teamsters Canada, the following resolution was motioned by S. Crawford, the Legislative Director  for BC and seconded by A.R. Terry, the Legislative Director for AB.

" Whereas: The vast majority of our membership in all three Systems in Canada, The Western System, The Eastern System, The Canadian System, have indicated by signing Teamsters Canada Rail Conference "A" cards and,

Whereas: The Teamsters have applied those  "A" cards to the proper authority, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board , and,

Whereas: Members from the Canadian System Federation have created a set of Bylaws to deal with the major issues involved with this merger, with the IBT/ Teamsters Canada, and,

Whereas: The members have waited long enough to have a vote on their future,and,

Whereas: Huge amounts of our Brother's and othe Brother's within organized labour movements money is being spent on this merger, and,

Whereas: The continued struggle over power of our great union is only creating division within our organization instead of making us the power to be reckoned with that we all strive for, and,

Whereas:  The membership desire an end to the process and work to begin in earnest to provide them with proper representation,

BE IT RESOLVED:  That this body, The Canadian Legislative Directors support the merger with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and Teamsters Canada.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:  That we will do whatever is requested of us as a group or as individuals to encourage our members to support this merger as well. "

This motion was CARRIED by a vote of six (6) FOR and one (1) against.

There was also a motion carried to distribute this motion widely, put forth by A.R. Terry of AB and seconded by Lloyd Goodman of MB and Russ Hannan of SK.