Citing the company’s “unwillingness to negotiate,” the union for about 2,700 train conductors, yardmen and traffic co-ordinators at Canadian National Railway (CN) warns a strike or lockout “could be inevitable.”
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), whose members in this case have been without a contract since July 22, say both the union and railway are now in a position to take action with 72 hours’ notice.
“Last-chance meetings” are being held this week, the union said in a release Monday, but added its negotiators are “pessimistic as to the results that will eventually arise from these discussions.”
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The outcome “now appears to depend on CN’s attitude,” the union said. “Will the company show itself willing to bargain in good faith or will it persist in wanting to impose unacceptable working conditions?”
CN asked for conciliation after only six days of talks following the expiry of the contract, the union said.
The conciliator’s report had no effect on bargaining, as the report “basically rejected the union’s concerns regarding (CN’s) intention to increase the workload of employees already working up to 18 hours per day,” the union said.
“A strike is inevitable if CN decides to go ahead and unilaterally modify the working conditions that impact the health and safety of our members,” Bryan Boechler, TCRC’s general chairman for Western Canada’s conductors, trainmen and yardmen (CTY) group in Edmonton, said in the union’s release.
“We cannot and will not sit idly by and allow the company to jeopardize the lives of the workers and the general Canadian population.”
The Teamsters said they’re “concerned by the prospect of reliving what the locomotive engineers went through in December 2009,” referring to CN’s locomotive engineers (LE) group, also represented by TCRC.
The engineers had gone on strike Nov. 28 last year but reached an agreement with CN Dec. 2, after Rona Ambrose, the federal labour minister at that time, announced plans Nov. 30 to introduce back-to-work legislation.
The subsequent decision by Ambrose’s chosen arbitrator, Andy Sims, is binding on the railway and its engineers until Dec. 31, 2011.
In the CTY group’s case, arbitration “is not a viable option,” TCRC said Monday, noting its last contract in 2007 was also decided by an arbitrator.
“The TCRC is not willing to accept two consecutive arbitrated settlements that fail to address our safety and health concerns.”
“Immediate and damaging”
One farmers’ group, the Grain Growers of Canada, isn’t waiting for a strike or lockout to happen before urging the federal government to legislate CN’s conductors back to work as well.
“We are calling on you to show leadership to the farmers and value-added processing industries in our sector, by strongly supporting the introduction and passing of back-to-work legislation at the earliest possible time in Parliament, followed by a dispute resolution process to bring closure to the dispute,” GGC president Doug Robertson wrote in a letter Monday to Labour Minister Lisa Raitt.
“Disruptions to rail service have immediate and damaging effects on our ability to make export sales,” Robertson, a Carstairs, Alta. farmer, wrote.
“Even in good times, our pulse (crop) industry is often only able to procure between 12 per cent and 18 per cent of its (rail) car orders and any disruption in rail service makes it nearly impossible to operate.”
The net effect, he told Raitt, is that grains, oilseeds and pulses then back up into farmers’ inventory and restrict their cash flow.
In the longer term, Robertson added, “disruptions to our ability to have our products on a timely basis to export position taints Canada’s reputation as a good place to do business.”
That, in turn, “has other longer-term ramifications in a global marketplace where Canadian farmers are competing against other countries that have more reliable systems in place to ensure delivery.”
