(Reuters circulated the following article by Allan Dowd on February 15.)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Canadian National Railway Co. said on Thursday it has offered to restart bargaining with striking freight train workers, but the union has rejected the idea.
The United Transportation Union, which walked off the job at Canada’s largest railway on Saturday, said it was unhappy with one of the company’s conditions to re-start talks, but was waiting to hear if CN would now modify its request.
CN Rail said it was willing to resume talks as of February 19 in return for the union immediately ending the strike by more than 2,000 Canadian conductors and switch yard workers.
CN offered to not discipline employees over the walkout or seek damages for what it alleges is an illegal strike, but said the UTU had to agree to a 60-day “cooling off” period, during which it would not stage a new strike.
The UTU, which has seen its leadership divided over the timing of the strike, said it felt the “no-strike” demand would hurt the workers’ bargaining position if the company did not negotiate in good faith.
“CN was advised of the union’s position. The company has yet to respond,” the union said in a statement.
The sides are at odds over a variety of issues including wages and working conditions.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board is scheduled to resume hearings on Monday on CN’s request to have the strike declared illegal.
The strike does not involve Canadian National’s operations in the United States, in northern Quebec or on its Algoma Central and Mackenzie Northern Railway subsidiaries.
The company has been using management personnel to try to maintain train operations in Canada, but grain and lumber shippers said they were seeing slowdowns.
All dry bulk and container terminals at the Pacific Coast port of Vancouver were experiencing delays in rail service, said Kerri Buschel, a port spokeswoman.
Canfor Corp., North America’s second-largest softwood producer, said on Thursday it will curtail production at three British Columbia mills due in part to the strike.
Agricore United
“We are seeing evidence of significant delays in the system,” said Radean Carter, spokeswoman for Agricore.
For grain shipments, the railway is focusing on 100-car unit trains from a region mainly between Edmonton, Alberta, and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, said Maureen Fitzhenry, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Wheat Board.
Customers say CN appears to be running at about 65 to 70 percent of its normal levels, which is compounding rail car shortfalls caused by severe weather earlier this winter.
The CWB, one of the world’s largest grain exporters, has asked the federal government to end the strike, but officials have said they will stay out of the matter while the CIRB is hearing arguments.
Ottawa will likely resist getting involved because trains continue to run and because its involvement could set a bad precedent for other labor negotiations, said Barry Prentice, a transportation economist at the University of Manitoba.
Canada’s minority Conservative government would require support from an opposition party to legislate an end to the strike, but Prentice said other parties would not likely block such a move if the strike dragged on.
“If there starts to be real economic hurt, where people are being laid off and our reputation internationally is being harmed, then the government has no choice. But we’re quite a ways from that,” Prentice said.