WHEREAS, the International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers exists to promote and protect the rights, interests and safety of our members through solidarity, aggressive representation and education; and

WHEREAS, at 140 years, the International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is the senior rail labor organization in the Western Hemisphere, founded on May 8, 1863; and

WHEREAS, our union and rail workers are under attack; and

WHEREAS, the BLE has no illusions that railroad carriers take advantage of any division in the solidarity of railroad employees in an effort to dominate their work forces; and

WHEREAS, rail labor's ability to negotiate fair and equitable contracts has been limited by "divide and conquer" techniques employed by the growing strength of rail management; and

NOW THEREFORE, be it RESOLVED that we the undersigned do hereby unanimously pledge to fight to preserve the goals of our forefathers, to protect our union's ideals of brotherhood and unity, to move the organization forward, and to be the caretakers of our rich tradition by approving documents that would create the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a division of the Rail Conference in the U.S., and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we encourage our members to review these documents closely and to exercise their democratic right to vote on this document, and that they vote in favor of creating the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, a division of the Rail Conference, and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference of the IBT; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that we also unanimously approve the creation of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Rail Conferences in both the U.S. and Canada and we encourage Rail Labor to unify under this umbrella for the betterment of all rail workers.

© 2003 Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers