(The Canadian Press distributed the following article by Donald McKenzie on January 23.)
MONTREAL — CN Rail and the Canadian Auto Workers (news – web sites ) expressed satisfaction Friday after the two sides reached tentative contract deals the union says will give 5,000 employees pay hikes and improved benefits for shift and weekend work.
“We think it is a good agreement,” Abe Rosner, national representative for the CAW, said Friday. The three-year deals, which were reached moments before a strike deadline of midnight Thursday night, contain “decent” salary increases, Rosner said in an interview.
“And on the very important issues which had been neglected for a number of years – of dealing with benefits relating to shift work and weekend work – we were very happy we made important breakthroughs in those areas.”
CN spokesman Mark Hallman said the tentative agreements helped safeguard the company’s objective from Day 1 of avoiding a strike.
“Nobody wins in a dispute where you have labour disruption,” Hallman said.
“It’s not good for the employees, it’s not good for CN and it would not be good for our customers, so we’re delighted we could come to this set of tentative agreements.”
Hallman was vague when asked whether the pay hikes will mean an increase in the cost of shipping materials with CN.
“We’re not going to discuss the issues at hand but, as a general rule of thumb, CN believes it provides a quality service and that it always, in terms of when it renews contracts, is seeking to be renumerated in line with the quality of its service.
“That is a continuing direction of the company but I’m not going to specifically comment about any wage increases or whether they would have any ties to any future rate increases.”
The tentative agreements, retroactive to Jan. 1, cover the railway’s shopcraft employees, clerical workers and intermodal yard employees.
CN remains in talks with another six unions whose contracts also expired at the end of last year. Those unions represent another 8,500 employees.
Hallman said the deals with the CAW will not have any direct impact on negotiations with the other unions whose members include locomotive engineers, trainmen, conductors, electrical workers, CN police and dispatchers.
Rosner said details of the tentative agreement were to be released to members Friday and that organizing a ratification vote would begin within days.
He admitted that not all union priorities were discussed during talks.
“There were issues we wanted to address which are going to have to wait until another round of bargaining or to different forums,” said Rosner, referring specifically to pensions.
CAW members had been prepared to walk off the job at midnight Thursday.
The original strike deadline passed at midnight Wednesday but the union agreed to extend it for 24 hours.
CN Rail is Canada’s largest railway company and a major North American freight hauler, with operations from coast to coast in Canada and down into the U.S. Midwest states to the Gulf of Mexico. The Montreal railway also recently struck a deal with the British Columbia government to pay $1 billion to buy BC Rail, a regional carrier that is Canada’s third biggest railway, behind CN and Calgary-rival CP Rail.
In trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday, CN Rail shares rose 65 cents to $81.10.