Vancouver-Approximately 1,300 track maintenance employees for the Canadian Pacific Railway returned to work on June 11after walking off the job May 15 over a labor dispute with the railroad (GM May 28, p. 12). The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference had demanded a 13 percent wage increase over three years, while CP Rail was holding to its 10 percent offer, which was also ratified by other unions working with the railroad. In the end, after weeks of negotiations and finally meetings with federal mediators in Ottawa, the union took the 10 percent wage increase, payable as annual wage hikes of 3 percent, 4 percent, and 3 percent for the three-year contract. CP will also pay bonuses of 1 percent in all three years, as well as higher expense payments, and dropped its demands for changes in seniority rules. The tentative contract will now go before the union’s 3,200 workers for a ratification vote, with results expected by mid-July. CP representatives referred to the settlement as “cost neutral” for the railroad, and downplayed the service disruptions caused by the strike. The railroad replaced about 1,200 striking workers with management during the walkout, and sought injunctions against employees blocking truck traffic at some intermodal terminals. Analysts agreed the railway did not suffer materially from the work action, noting that CP’s volumes, an indication of its revenues, were strong during the quarter. Canada’s fertilizer industry also expressed muted concern during the strike due to the workers involved and the timing of the walkout at the end of the busy spring planting season. The opposite was true in February, however, during a two-week walkout at the Canadian National Railway by conductors with the United Transportation Union (GM Feb. 19, p. 1). That strike resulted in costly shipping delays for Canadian industry.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain