The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents nearly 10,000 workers at Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railroads, announced on June 29 that union members voted overwhelmingly to reauthorize strikes at both companies if negotiated settlements cannot be reached.
“CN and CPKC are trying to force changes to our collective agreements that would move the clock back on working conditions and rail safety. The Teamsters are trying to stop them,” said TCRC President Paul Boucher. “With this renewed strike mandate, we intend to go back to the bargaining table, work with federal mediators, and do everything in our power to reach a fair deal for our members and protect all Canadians.”
The second vote was held after the first strike vote in late April expired. For federally regulated industries in Canada, strike authorization votes are only good for 60 days. The earlier vote was also overwhelmingly supported by union workers (GM May 3, p. 1), but the planned strike on May 22 was averted when the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) intervened and requested information from both parties on whether a strike would have potential safety implications (GM May 24, p. 1).
The TCRC said the second vote had an 89.5% turnout, with 98.6% voting to reauthorize a strike. The union said CN and CPKC are “demanding a wide range of concessions on issues pertaining to crew scheduling, hours of work, and fatigue management,” including efforts to “gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions” and to push through “a forced relocation scheme” that would force workers “to move around the country for months at a time.”
“Compromising on safety, or threatening to tear families apart for months, are not solutions to staffing problems,” the TCRC said. “CN and CPKC should instead be looking to improve working conditions and adopt a more humane approach to railroading.”
For federally regulated industries in Canada, strike authorization votes are only good for 60 days, and unions are required to give a 72-hour strike notice before any labor action commences. Railroad officials earlier stated that the earliest a strike could happen is mid-July, but both sides remain in negotiations to avert a “labor disruption” that CN in June said would hurt “CN, our employees, our customers, and the Canadian economy.”