April 27, 2005

The Vancouver Strike committee would like to thank each and everyone that help in yesterdays strike. Vancouver members did an outstanding job considering the short notice.

At 2:00 pm. Central Daylight time a peaceful withdrawal from service was made by all former BN North lines UTU Locals.

The reason is as stated in President Thompson’s letter of April 27, 2005.

Shortly before yesterday afternoon's strike, Clint Miller (UTU Legal Counsel) commenced a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Minnesota seeking an injunction to prevent the BN from violating the 1985 National Agreement and the 1987 Memorandum of Agreement providing that an engineer may exercise trainman seniority only if the engineer is "unable to hold any position or assignment in engine service...".

As you may know, we were able to procure an agreement for an early preliminary injunction hearing before Chief Judge Rosenbaum in Minneapolis. The strike action significantly aided us in accomplishing this. The UTU is in the process of scheduling that hearing now.

In case you are interested in greater detail, a copy of the complaint is posted on at
http://jaysworks.com/2005/strike/complaint.pdf