Unions representing conductors and engineers with Canada\u2019s two major freight railroads said Wednesday they have authorized a strike as soon as May 22, after 98% of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) voted to walk off the job unless a new labor contract is hammered out.<\/p>\n
Federal conciliators have tried since March 1 to negotiate a deal between Canadian Pacific-Kansas City(CPKC), Canadian National Railway (CN) and TCRC, without success. Talks broke down on a new collective bargaining agreement soon after talks began last fall.<\/p>\n
During a press conference Wednesday, the Teamsters declined to answer whether the individual unions under the TCRC umbrella would strike at the railroads simultaneously.<\/p>\n
A conciliation period ended May 1. Without a deal, the two sides begin a mandatory 21-day \u201ccooling off\u201d period before the TCRC can strike or the railroads lock out the workers. Voting took place from April 6 to May 1. The vote tally announced Wednesday was required for the TCRC to issue a 72-hour strike notice that could come as soon as May 19.<\/p>\n
TCRC represents 6,000 conductors, engineers and yard workers with CN and 3,200 with CPKC. The union also represents about 80 rail traffic controllers with CPKC. In the US, rail traffic controllers are often referred to as dispatchers.<\/p>\n
Canadian rail stoppages not uncommon<\/p>\n
The core issues in dispute include salaries, work-life balance and rest periods.<\/p>\n
Both CN and CPKC want to abolish the per-mile pay for conductors and engineers and replace it with an hourly wage. The railroads have said the new pay scale is \u201cmodernized\u201d and will raise wages for employees, while the TCRC says more than half its workforce will earn less until the proposed changes in pay take effect.<\/p>\n
CPKC said it has put two proposals on the table, one of which it says would increase pay and improve work-life balance with \u201cscheduled, predictable days off\u201d through a simplified system, and the other that would \u201cmaintain the status quo for work rules\u201d for rest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can tell you that the progressive hourly deal, in my assessment, addresses what our employees want and need,\u201d CPKC CEO Keith Creel said on an Apr. 24 earnings call. \u201cThey want a better quality of life. They want higher wages, which certainly is understandable. And in turn, our ability to be able to provide that is found in the terms and conditions of that hourly agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another issue of contention is the \u201cTransport Canada Duty and Rest Period Rules\u201d enacted last year.<\/p>\n
The TCRC complains that the railroads want to use rules to replace all previous workplace provisions in prior collective bargaining agreements. The union argues the rules were meant to complement terms in prior agreements, not replace them, and to do so would jeopardize safety.<\/p>\n
Patrick Whitehead, CN\u2019s chief network operating officer, said during a first-quarter earnings call that any claim the railroad is not committed to safety is wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe successfully implemented the duty and rest period rules that were mandated in Canada in May of 2023 and have been in full compliance with these rules,\u201d Whitehead said on the April 23 call. \u201cWhat we are doing is working to simplify the complexity of the stacking effect we experienced beginning in 2023 of the additional paid sick and personal leave days under the Canada Labor code, the duty and rest period rules and the unavailable time provided by the legacy collective marketing agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work stoppages are not uncommon in Canada. The TCRC walked off the job with Canadian Pacific in 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2022 and embarked on an eight-day strike with CN in 2019.<\/p>\n
In theory, CPKC and CN could run limited operations during a strike because there are managers who have been trained or have worked as conductors, engineers, rail traffic controllers, trainmasters and yardmasters earlier in their careers.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Ashe, A. (2024, May 1). Teamsters Canada vote overwhelmingly to authorize rail strike as soon as May 22<\/i>. Journal of Commerce. https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/teamsters-canada-vote-overwhelmingly-authorize-rail-strike-soon-may-22_20240501.html<\/p>\n Unions representing conductors and engineers with Canada\u2019s two major freight railroads said Wednesday they have authorized a strike as soon as May 22, after 98% of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) voted to walk off the job unless a new labor contract is hammered out. Federal conciliators have tried since March 1 to negotiate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[86,84],"class_list":["post-2973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-canadian-ports","tag-maritime"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2974,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2973\/revisions\/2974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}