The union has merged with other railway unions several times. The Brotherhood of Railway Carmen is a division of the Transportation Communications Union. In 1986, the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen voted to merge with the TCU, and members of this craft in the present day are considered a part of the TCU's Carmen Division, which operates by its own by-laws. The most recent merger occurred on January 1, 2012, in which the TCU merged with the International Association of Machinists, after a TCU member vote in July 2005.