(Reuters circulated the following article by Allan Dowd on February 25.)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Canadian government put its plans to force an end to the strike at Canadian National Railway Co. on hold on Sunday, after the railroad and the union reached a tentative contract agreement.
But Canadian labor minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn warned the government might intervene if the 2,800 railroad workers do not approve the deal in what is expected to be a hotly contested ratification vote next month. “(The government) remains prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the strength and stability of the Canadian economy,” Blackburn said in a statement a day after the negotiators reached the agreement.
The strike by train conductors and switchmen that began Feb. 10 slowed freight service on Canada’s largest railway, and forced the automotive, chemical and forestry industries to idle production because of a lack of rail cars.
The United Transportation Union, or UTU, has urged its members to return to work, although legally the union will remain on strike until the results of the mail-in ratification vote are known on March 26.
The union told employees after the deal was announced on Saturday that returning to work would ease the threat of the government forcing an end to the strike with legislation that would also have allowed a federal arbitrator to impose a contract.
The Conservative government had planned for parliament to vote on the legislation on Thursday or Friday if no contract agreement was reached.
UTU spokesman Frank Wilner said the government’s threat to intervene if the workers reject the deal showed how important it was for them to ratify it and avoid legislation that would subject their contract to a “roll of the dice.”
Wilner said most strikers appeared to be returning to work, and the company told customers that normal train service was being restored in parts of the country.
The contract talks were overshadowed by a bitter battle within the union, that saw the UTU’s international headquarters suspend the original Canadian negotiators midway through the walkout and appoint new negotiators.
The suspended officials were accused of orchestrating the strike in a bid to split the union so the Canadian locals could join the rival Teamsters Union, which represents CN’s locomotive engineers.
Officials declined to speculate about how that battle would play out in the ratification vote. The agreement was for a one-year contract, which the UTU negotiators said would allow the union to “regroup” and negotiate a longer contract later in 2007 without the threat of government intervention.
The union and company had originally proposed three-year contracts.
The contract includes the 3 percent wage hike proposed by the railroad, and not the 4.5 percent demanded by the union before the strike began. Canadian National also agreed to pay a C$1,000 bonus.
Many workers said during the strike that they were more concerned about work rule issues than wages, and the union negotiators say the railroad dropped the concession it had been seeking before the strike.
The previous contract expired at the end of 2006.