(The Canadian Press circulated the following article on February 20.)
MONTREAL — The picket lines started to go up after midnight as the first of about 5,000 workers at CN Rail went on strike, hours after last-minute talks with the railway ended without an agreement.
“They are now going on strike in order to put further pressure to get the agreement that they want,” Canadian Auto Workers union spokesman Abe Rosner said in an interview. “I think it’s unfortunate that we have to use this weapon.” CN’s shopcraft, intermodal and clerical workers were walking off the job at midnight local times “in rolling waves across the time zones.”
Even though 36 hours of talks failed to avert a strike, CAW chief negotiator Gary Fane said the union is ready to resume negotiations at any time.
“Our one and only aim is to secure an agreement that can earn the support of our members,” he said in a news release.
The CAW represents about one quarter of CN’s 22,000 employees. Its members provide customer service, safety inspections, repairs to trains and rail cars, and manual labour in areas where shipments are transferred between trains, trucks and boats.
The employees’ average annual salary is about $45,000.
Rosner said Via Rail passenger trains and commuter rail services in Toronto and Montreal, which use CN track, would run as usual, at least at the outset of a strike.
But he questioned how long that could last.
“When these 5,000 people lose their jobs there are going to be problems,” he said in an interview.
“Can they run some trains? We don’t represent the employees who are not on strike who will be actually operating the trains. But how long can they run them? How efficiently can they run them? I think that’s a question that CN will have to address.”
Via operates passenger rail service to more than 450 communities coast to coast along some 14,000 kilometres of track, most of which belongs to CN.
Via has said that it has received assurances from CN that there would be no disruptions.
CN spokesman Mark Hallman said management will be pressed into service to replace workers during a strike.
“We are activating our contingency plan to maintain operations across Canada and we will operate normal freight schedules with management performing key functions performed by the CAW,” Hallman said in an interview after talks collapsed.
He declined to say what prompted an end to the mediated talks, noting that members rejected a recommendation from the union executive to approve a tentative agreement last month.
“There are no new discussions planned with the CAW at this time,” Hallman added.
Rosner said the talks failed to produce an agreement based on what members said was wrong with the last company offer. He said a strike could have a serious impact on the Canadian economy because it will slow down freight operations.
Last year, CN moved about 4.2 million carloads of freight across Canada and through the U.S. Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. The company ships forestry products, autos, intermodal units, grain, fertilizer, petroleum, chemicals, metals and minerals. It had revenues of about $5.9 billion last year.
The last labour dispute at the railway was ended by federal legislation after workers were locked out for eight days in 1995. A 1987 strike lasted four days.
But with CN vowing to maintain operations and Canadian Pacific operating as normal, Rosner said the situation appears different this time.
“I think the government is going to be very hard-pressed to find a pretext for back-to-work legislation,” he said.
“We don’t see the scenario being anything like previous interventionist situations.”
The strike could be considered by the federal Competition Bureau as it reviews CN’s bid to take over operation of B.C. Rail from the provincial government on a long-term lease, provincial rail spokesman Don Thorne told the Prince George Citizen.
“Here’s a prime example of, if CN owns us and we go on strike for two months, how do people move their product? There’s only one way, by truck, which takes quite awhile and is more expensive,” Thorne said.
CN and CAW negotiators met for three hours Wednesday with a federal mediator after employees rejected the last company offer.
Among the issues discussed were salary, working conditions and disciplinary procedures, the Canadian Auto Workers union said Thursday in a statement.
The workers had been offered a three-year deal with annual wage increases of three per cent.