(The Canadian Press circulated the following story on February 26.)
MONTREAL — Some Canadian National Railway clients reported a deterioration in service yesterday as the company and the union representing 5,000 of its striking workers agreed to resume contract negotiations. However, operations resumed at Ford of Canada plants in Ontario where thousands of workers had to be sent home earlier this week due to the strike.
The return to the bargaining table came on the sixth day of a nationwide strike by clerical, shopcraft and intermodal yard workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers.
“Federal mediators today directed CN and the CAW to resume contract talks,” said company spokesman Mark Hallman.
The mediators had been trying to get the two sides talking since contract talks broke down last Thursday.
The railway says its operations are running close to normal.
‘REALLY DETERIORATING’
However, Bob Ballantyne, president of the Ottawa-based Canadian Industrial Transportation Association, said some of its members reported a drop in service.
“We’re starting to get more information that people are finding the service is really deteriorating,” Ballantyne, whose group represents rail-users, said in an interview.
“Certainly some shippers are saying that the reality they’re experiencing is different from what CN is reporting in their press releases.”
The CAW workers, almost a third of CN’s Canadian workforce, surprised their union leadership by rejecting a negotiated settlement with wage increases of 3% in each of three years. Their previous contract ran out Dec. 31.
CAW official Abe Rosner said the main outstanding issues are wages and working conditions, especially disciplinary procedures.