(The following story by Kathleen Martens appeared on the Winnipeg Sun website on February 24.)
WINNIPEG — CN has obtained a court order to keep striking rail workers off sensitive property in Winnipeg. CN spokesman Mark Hallman said a judge granted an order Sunday that keeps pickets away from Symington Yard, Transcona Yard and Transcona Shops.
“It will keep picketers from blocking or obstructing at the entrances,” Hallman said.
Winnipeg Police spokesman Const. Bob Johnson confirmed officers shooed members of the Canadian Auto Workers away from the court-ordered locations yesterday morning.
DELAYS IN SERVICE
The order is in effect until Feb. 26, Hallman said, and was sought because union members were causing delays in service.
Workers have the right to picket as part of legal strike action, but Hallman said the company has the “legal ability to make sure that your facilities are not obstructed.”
Injunctions to prevent similar actions are in force in Montreal and Edmonton.
No talks are scheduled to resume bargaining on behalf of 5,000 clerical, shopcraft and intermodal workers who went on strike Feb. 20. A federal mediator remains on standby.
Striking workers rejected a proposed three-year contract with annual wage increase of 3%. Their contract expired at the end of 2003.
But CAW member Tom Williams of Winnipeg said the strike is about more than money.
“It’s about respect,” he said yesterday. “And the way we are treated.”
Meanwhile Bruce Willows, chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Division 583, which represents about 180 employees in Winnipeg who must cross picket lines during the strike, said his members learned two replacement workers are from the Illinois Central Railway, which is part of CN Rail.
Hallman denied the charges yesterday.
“That’s false. CN has not brought in U.S. employees to do the work of CAW workers,” he said.
Willows also said his members, who drive the trains, are concerned about the job replacement workers and company managers checking and maintaining the equipment.
He said his union has documented three examples of “substandard work” and will forward them to Transport Canada.
“Our members’ safety depends on it,” he said.