(Following are two letters. The first was written Feb. 20 to Canadian Vice Presidents John Armstrong and Robert Sharpe by UTU International President Paul Thompson; the second is a Feb. 19 letter to Canadian members by Canadian Legislative Director Tim Secord.)

Dear Sirs and Brothers:

This has reference to the document faxed to my office this date as a suggested return-to-work agreement between the United Transportation Union and the Canadian National Railway.

I offer my following comments regarding this document. First and foremost, we have received an overwhelming number of e-mails, faxes and telephone calls indicating that the membership desires and expects this strike to continue until a satisfactory resolution is achieved. In assigning both of you to this dispute in accordance to Article 85, I place my trust in both of your recommendations.

With that said, I would like to point out the following. It is my understanding that Mr. Beatty, Mr. Boechler, Mr. Lebel, Ms. LeBlanc and possibly others were in an adjacent room while you both were meeting with the director general. Those individuals have no constitutional rights or authority to be involved in these affairs. They were removed from our union for violating our constitution and their oath of office.

I further understand that Mr. Roland Hackel has been making telephone calls advising that the former officers have decided, obviously against the express intent of our Canadian membership, to call off the strike.

It should be clearly understood that we have always supported our membership and their right to self help, but consistent with the provisions of the UTU Constitution. It is my understanding that your original recommendations were that the strike continue. I accept that recommendation.

We have been informed from the beginning of this strike that now, and not later, is the best time to exercise self help because of the severe weather conditions in Canada.

Our Canadian members believe that the type of return-to-work arrangement you forwarded to the undersigned for review favors CN. The dismissed former UTU officers have convinced our membership that this is exactly what the UTU International would do once they became in charge of the negotiations. I find it odd that they now profess otherwise and I believe they have an ulterior motive.

If we agree to sign this document then the next thing that will occur is that Mr. Beatty, Mr. Boechler, Ms. LeBlanc and Mr. Lebel and others will accuse the International of caving into the CN by agreeing to return to work without an agreement.

According to the membership, setting the date of June 1, 2007, plays right into CN’s hands. By returning to work under this agreement, if my understanding is correct, we will also be susceptible to raiding by the TCRC which again, is what Mr. Beatty, Mr. Boechler, Ms. LeBlanc and Mr. Lebel have been planning all along. There is no doubt that these four have placed the International, our membership and the carriers in a bad situation and we are left to try and correct the situation.

I am reminded in every e-mail, fax and telephone call that 90-some percent of the membership wanted a strike. They now have one that has now been authorized by the International. It is my position to now fully support the desires of the UTU membership in Canada.

Once our membership was taken out on strike, not one attempt was made by the former general chairpersons to try and negotiate a settlement in the last 11 days. They did nothing but sit around blaming the International for their failure to get an agreement. That is a disgrace to the collective bargaining process.

It is my suggestion that instead of attempting to work out a return-to-work agreement, we concentrate on negotiating an agreement to send out for ratification of our membership. Short of successfully negotiating an agreement, then the strike must continue.

The document that was faxed to me has many unexplained language terms such as “bargaining agents." Does that mean the United Transportation Union or the four former general chairpersons? I am not at all comfortable with you signing this document as I see that this is nothing but another trap set by Rex Beatty and his followers.

Fraternally yours,

Paul C. Thompson, International President

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(This second letter is to Canadian members; sent by UTU Canadian Legislative Director Tim Secord.)

Sisters and Brothers:

By now you are all aware that by action taken by the International Board of Directors, the four CN general chairpersons were removed from office, as were the three full-time vice-general chairpersons.

Currently, vice presidents Sharpe and Armstrong are attempting to negotiate a memorandum of settlement on your behalf by meeting with the company and the federal mediator appointed by the minister of labour.

Brothers Sharpe and Armstrong did not ask for that task, they inherited it when the aforementioned general committee officers were removed in disgrace -- disgrace for leading you down the garden path, disgrace for misleading you in acquiring a strike mandate, disgrace for violating the very Constitution that they were elected by, and disgrace for selling out the very membership of the UTU they swore to protect. All this while using your dues money to pay themselves to sell you out.

This has been in the making for a very long time; and, to their credit, they have done an excellent job of misleading the membership to get to the precipice we now face.

It was only four days ago when they had conference calls with the local chairpersons and said they would agree to a five-day cooling off period, but not a 63-day period.

Now they are soliciting your support for even less than that -- hell, just go back to work!

These same former UTU members are now trying to persuade the local chairpersons to tell our members to drop their picket signs, using a doomsday scenario of back to work legislation.

If you drop your picket signs before the strike is declared over, as a result of obtaining an agreement or being ordered back to work, it is the members who are imperiled.

They will have effectively been on strike at the urging of these four (or more) general chairpersons who said, "Hell no, we won't go" (until we get an agreement) and here they are today, trying to convince the same local chairpersons to have our members drop their picket signs before the strike is declared over by the union (of which they no longer belong), or by being ordered back to work through legislation.

To the extent that it is possible, the president's position and that of the vice presidents has been that no one goes back to work until an agreement is obtained.

Remember, these vice presidents were elected by Canadians, by delegates who were elected by Canadians, who voted and endorsed the Constitution, voted on by Canadians.

Enough evidence has been provided to every member in this union in Canada to make their jaws drop at the reprehensible behaviour of those who were removed from office.

Are we now to believe that the palace coup continues and our local chairpersons and the members they were elected to represent (under the same Constitution) are now going to take direction from the same disgraced former officers that brought them to the brink of disaster?

Would our membership follow their lead into the abyss after so many months of being told, "Hell no, we won't go"?

If our members drop their signs with no agreement, the fabulous four have helped Hunter break the strike, plain and simple.

You will have been on strike for a laudable set of ideals and principles, only to fold your tents and go back to work with your tail between your legs -- with NOTHING! Nothing solved, NOTHING. Nothing fixed solved, nothing fixed -- just back to the plantation!

Is that what you want? Is that what you believe the membership wants?

Are the disgraced and removed officers who so blatantly violated the Constitution that was endorsed by Canadians, the document they were elected to office to by Canadians -- is their vanity so important that our members will throw in the towel on their set of ideals they went on strike for, just to offer some misguided moral support to those who betrayed you, using your own money?

HOLD THE LINE, BROTHERS AND SISTERS. The alternative is not what you persevered through this strike for.

In solidarity,

Tim Second, Canadian Legislative Director