(The following story by Tavia Grant appeared on the Globe and Mail website on March 25.)
TORONTO — Canadian National Railway Co., the country’s biggest railroad, said it reached a tentative agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, averting a potential strike Friday night.
The union covers 644 members who maintain and repair CN’s signals and communications systems across Canada. The strike had been scheduled for Friday at midnight, after the union served CN a strike notice on Wednesday.
Details about the four-year contract, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004, won’t be disclosed until after a ratification vote.
“In general, the tentative agreement provides improvements in IBEW members’ salaries and benefits,” CN said in a statement.
Earlier this week, Federal Labour Minister Joe Fontana appointed two mediators to help with the negotiations.
In Friday’s statement, CN chief executive officer Hunter Harrison said he was pleased with the agreement. “This was the best possible outcome for all of us: employees, company and customers.”
The union’s senior system general chairman chair Kevin Kearns said the settlement will “form the basis for a continued relationship between IBEW members and the company.”
Last year, a 30-day strike by 5,000 Canadian Auto Workers members caused backlogs and lost business to cut CN’s profit by $24 million.