The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) announced on May 1 that close to 10,000 workers at Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railways have voted to authorize strikes at both companies. Unless an agreement is reached, TCRC said a work stoppage can occur as early as May 22.
TCRC reported that 97.6% of conductors, locomotive engineers, and yard workers at CN voted to authorize a strike, while 99% of those workers at CPKC voted in favor of a strike. In addition, 95.3% of rail traffic controllers (RTCs) at CPKC voted to authorize the strike. At issue are collective agreements over safety-critical rest provisions, TCRC said.
The work stoppage would interrupt transport of products – including cars, coal, consumer goods, fertilizer, grains, minerals, and petroleum – as well as commuter services, which are run by the affected conductors, locomotive engineers, yard workers, and rail traffic controllers.
“After six months of negotiations with both companies, we are no closer to reaching a settlement than when we first began,” said TCRC President Paul Boucher. “Both companies are trying to strip our collective agreements of safety-critical rest provisions. We are at an impasse, with the companies failing to understand that the Teamsters will never compromise on safety or bargain with Canadian lives.”
Boucher warned that a simultaneous work stoppage at both CN and CPKC “would disrupt supply chains on a scale Canada has likely never experienced.” He said the union intends to go back to the bargaining table and work with federal mediators to reach a deal.
“I would like to make it very clear that provoking a crisis on that scale has not been, and never will be, our goal,” he said. “The reality is that we would very much like to avoid a work stoppage.”
CN said in a May 1 statement that negotiations with TCRC are ongoing, but the union “has made it clear that it will not agree to move toward a more modern agreement based on an hourly rate and scheduling that would have provided significant wage increases and offered scheduled consecutive days off, provisions for no layoffs, and reduced hours away from home.”
CN said it suggested a “simplified, alternative path” to achieve a deal prior to the May 22 strike deadline, but it claims TCRC “has made very few concessions towards a negotiated agreement and has been unclear on what it is seeking for employees other than to continue focusing on a list of approximately 200 local and regional demands unrelated to a modern consolidated agreement benefiting employees and customers alike.”
CN further stated that TCRC is unavailable to meet until May 13, leaving the railroad with a “cautious outlook” regarding the possibility of finalizing a deal before a labor disruption.