Canadian Pacific Railway Limited announced that unions representing railroad employees across the U.S., including SMART-Transportation Division ("SMART-TD") General Committee GCA-457 representing Kansas City Southern ("KCS") employees, have written letters urging the Surface Transportation Board ("STB") to reject Canadian National's ("CN") proposed use of a voting trust. Many of the unions express concerns about job loss, increased CN debt load and regulatory challenges a CN/KCS transaction would face. Excerpts from the letters include: "If the CN voting trust and proposed merger were granted approval, fully expect significant job losses on KCS because ultimately the transaction would require either a sale or abandonment of duplicative rail lines. The consequences for SMART-TD members would be uncertain, adverse, and certainly contrary to the public interest." -- Sam Habjan, General Chairperson of SMART-Transportation Division General Committee GCA-457, representing approximately 675 trainpersons on the KCS. "The approval of the CN voting trust by the STB would be risky for the railway industry and quite possibly will negatively impact SMART-TD members. Approval of the CN voting trust proposal would harm employees of both KCS and CN due to the amount of debt CN will carry and the real possibility that the CN transaction would fail the regulatory test in the end." -- Joint letter from Legislative Directors of SMART-Transportation Division in the states of Kansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Illinois.