About 3,000 workers at Canadian National Railway who have been without a contract since last summer have agreed to take one more try at hammering out an agreement with their employer.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC-CTY) representing conductors, train persons and yard workers agreed March 22 to resume negotiations with CN.
Last week, unionized workers represented by the Teamsters narrowly rejected an agreement that was reached last month.
If a new agreement is not reached and ratified in this round of negotiations, the dispute will be settled by binding arbitration, CN said.
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The two sides were scheduled to meet this week.
“I am very pleased that the Teamsters have accepted our offer to negotiate a settlement and, failing such, to submit our differences to binding arbitration,” said CN president Claude Mongeau in a March 22 news release.
“With a process assuring contractual certainty, CN and the Teamsters can continue working on the company’s recovery from an extraordinarily cold winter that hampered operations, and help our valued customers across Canada get their goods to market.”
The threat of a labour disruption at CN comes at time when both of Canada’s major railways are facing increased scrutiny from Ottawa.
In early February, federal transport minister Lisa Raitt announced an order requiring CN and Canadian Pacific Railway to move a combined million tonnes of western Canadian grain per week.
The railway companies were given four weeks to meet the million-tonne-per-week target or face fines as high as $100,000 per day.
Ottawa was also expected to introduce new legislation this week aimed at ensuring better service for rail shippers.
Details of that legislation are not available.
