The Grand Lodge Officers passed a resolution on June 8 that they "move forward with the Merger Committee’s recommendations and that President Fleming appoint a committee consisting of at least two Canadian Grand Lodge Officers and as many United States Grand Lodge Officers as he deems appropriate to review the concerns made by the majority of the Grand Lodge Officers. Upon finishing their review of the Grand Lodge Officers’ concerns and merger documents, the committee will report back to all Grand Lodge Officers for a vote before submitting the merger proposal to the membership for a ratification vote."

As this JOURNAL went to print the Grand Lodge Officers sub-committee was scheduled to convene the entire week of June 18 in Kansas City to work through the list of concerns identified by the Grand Lodge Officers.

Should the merger with IBB thereafter be approved by the Grand Lodge Officers, BMWE would take such steps as determined necessary by the Grand Lodge Officers to educate members as to the features and advantages of the proposed merger. Such an educational process would likely utilize a combination of regional meetings, the BMWE JOURNAL and other effective means of communications. The issue of a merger with the IBB would then be put before the membership for ratification through referendum ballot in accordance with Article I, Section 1 of the BMWE Grand Lodge Constitution and Bylaws.

"Should Rail Unions Merge?" was the title of the award-winning editorial by President Fleming first published in the September 1995 issue of the BMWE JOURNAL and again in the December 1996 issue. At the beginning of the article, President Fleming asked a number of questions:

"Does the current craft structure — 11 unions in one industry, some of which are struggling financially — continue to make sense, if it ever did? Can an industry whose numbers have shrunk by more than 50% in the past 15 years and which is currently in its own round of merger mania continue to support 11 different union bureaucracies? Will a government that is not particularly friendly to labor be willing to guarantee our memberships the level of protection we need to survive when one or more rail unions undercuts other rail unions in the mistaken belief that it can obtain better results from the government for its members of other rail unions? Similarly, can one union outperform another when all have different bargaining strategies? Does any of this make sense?"

At the conclusion of the article, President Fleming said: "The great rail labor leader Eugene Debs was right 100 years ago when he called for one railroad union for all railroad workers. He is even more right in 1995. The winds of change are blowing throughout the labor movement. Leadership is changing and unions are merging in order to strengthen their bargaining and political strength. Let’s not bury our heads in the sand. Yes, let’s move the merger process forward within rail labor."

Delegates to the 1998 Grand Lodge Convention soundly agreed as evidenced by the unanimous adoption of Resolution 29, the final resolve of which states:

"RESOLVED, that we, the delegates of the 43^rd Grand Lodge Convention, go on record to request that the Grand Lodge President explore all avenues consistent with the Constitution and Bylaws, the feasibility of affiliation, etc. with all other rail and/or non-rail unions."

The delegates passed Resolution 29 in recognition of the BMWE’s diminished collective bargaining and political power caused by declining membership, industry downsizing, limited organizing opportunities, and the financial realities of providing strong union representation in the face of declining membership and increasing costs.

As a result of a motion adopted by the Grand Lodge Officers in February 1999 to move forward to implement Resolution 29, President Fleming appointed a BMWE Merger/Affiliation Committee, comprised of six general chairmen, one from each of the five U.S. regions and one from Canada. The Committee was given the responsibility to review and explore the feasibility and benefits of merger and/or affiliation with a number of rail and non-rail unions, and to report their findings and recommendations to the Grand Lodge Officers. President Fleming also appointed six advisors to the Committee, including one general chairman/Grand Lodge executive board member, two additional Grand Lodge officers (one U.S. and one Canadian), and three Grand Lodge appointees.

Over the past two years, the BMWE Merger/Affiliation Committee, with the approval of the Grand Lodge Officers, met with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen (BRS), International Association of Machinists (IAM), International Brotherhood of Boilermakers (IBB) and the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU).

BMWE’s goal in these merger/affiliation discussions was to identify merger partners whose organizational and collective bargaining philosophy was consistent with BMWE’s, where the potential merger partner’s financial condition would enhance rather than burden the BMWE’s financial condition and assets, and where the merger partner’s political and legislative influence would enhance BMWE’s political, legislative, and collective bargaining leverage.

The Committee met with all of the above-named unions at least once, and in several cases multiple times, to identify which organizations expressed a genuine interest and offered mutual benefits consistent with the stated goals of BMWE and for the mutual benefit of each organization’s respective membership.

Some organizations made it clear to the BMWE Merger/Affiliation Committee that, while they may be willing to consider a loose affiliation with BMWE, they were not in a position, or did not possess the will, to effectuate a merger with BMWE. After several Committee meetings with these potential merger partners, the Committee determined that further discussions with BLE/ATDD, BRS, IAM and TWU were unlikely to progress beyond the initial exploratory stage. Based upon this determination, further discussions with these organizations were respectfully discontinued.

One organization that continued to express a genuine interest in furthering merger discussions with BMWE was the IBB. The Committee recognized IBB as a suitable merger prospect which offers mutual benefits and possesses the desired attributes of a potential merger partner.

The BMWE Committee and the IBB Committee met on numerous occasions over a period of approximately 22 months, in multi-day sessions, to discuss the feasibility and desirability of effectuating a merger between BMWE and IBB. Clarified at the first meeting was the mutual desire of both organizations to approach the discussions from a perspective of a merger of equals. It was from this perspective that both parties approached discussions in all subsequent meetings.

IBB is a skilled craft union which represents members concentrated in the following six industrial sectors: Manufacturing, Stove/Metal, Shipbuilding/Repair, Railroad, Cement, and Construction. The current total U.S. and Canadian membership of IBB is approximately 96,000. IBB is headquartered in Kansas City, Kansas where they own an 80,000 square foot office building and a substantial amount of property in the immediate vicinity. In several other states and provinces the IBB owns or maintains satellite offices.

IBB currently has 12 staff employees in Kansas City and 64 staff in the field. They operate an organizing department consisting of 13 organizers and maintain an education department which provides education and trade-skills training to the membership. This includes IBB operation of an apprenticeship and journeyman training facility in Kansas City. IBB also maintains at their Kansas City headquarters a research and collective bargaining services department and they also administer their own pension and health and welfare benefits from their headquarters.

In addition, IBB maintains a substantial PAC fund and retains a fully staffed and experienced legislative department in Washington, DC. Further, IBB maintains a publications department for production of the IBB journal, The Boilermaker Reporter, and an Internet web-site www.boilermakers.org. IBB also maintains a legal defense fund for the payment of strike and lock-out benefits and for the payment of legal fees and other legal expenses incurred.

The BMWE Merger/Affiliation Committee, after careful review and thorough investigation of the benefits to BMWE, and in equal consideration of all potential merger/affiliation prospects, identifying no apparent downside to a merger with the IBB, prepared a report and recommendations in support of a merger with the IBB which they submitted to the Grand Lodge Officers at the end of May for their review, input, evaluation, and action.

The Committee noted that should the BMWE merge with IBB, the BMWE Division would immediately become the largest division within the IBB organization and, therefore, would have a substantial voice within the merged organization, including two seats on the IBB Executive Council. The Committee has determined IBB to be a financially sound and well administered organization which shares with BMWE a common background and trade union philosophy. The BMWE Division would preserve its own name and identity within the merged organization. The merger agreement would also preserve the structure, autonomy, and bylaws of the BMWE system divisions and federations in the U.S. and Canada.

The Committee also noted that the combined membership of a BMWE/IBB merger would be approximately 142,000 members strong, adding to the merged organization's collective bargaining power and political clout for the benefit of the membership. The combined BMWE and IBB membership would be serviced by a merged organization with operational assets in excess of $90 million dollars. During periods of unemployment, BMWE members would become eligible to work in the IBB’s Construction Division and for other IBB employers where work opportunities exist.

The Committee anticipated that combining the talent, assets, and strengths of the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes and the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers would provide the tools necessary to improve and enhance representation of the BMWE membership at the highest level.