(Bloomberg News circulated the following by Greg Quinn on November 29, 2009.)
OTTAWA — Canadian National Railway Co., whose unionized locomotive engineers went on strike yesterday, rejected an offer for binding wage arbitration because it didn’t include a clear timeline for concluding the dispute.
Canadian National said Nov. 23 it planned to increase the engineers’ working mileage limit to 4,300 miles from 3,800 miles, making it equal to the cap set for conductors, and offer a 1.5 percent wage increase in compensation. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, or TCRC, said its offer for arbitration on wages after other issues that were negotiated was submitted last night and rejected this morning.
“The union’s proposal continues negotiations, for an undefined period of time, over the same work rule issues we have been discussing for 14 months,” Mark Hallman, a spokesman for Montreal-based Canadian National, said in a telephone interview. “If the TCRC would enter into a binding arbitration agreement with us today that simultaneously ends the strike, we would be pleased to draft an offer for resolution.”
Labour Minister
Labour Minister Rona Ambrose may introduce back-to-work legislation tomorrow if no agreement is reached, and seek opposition support to pass it the day afterwards, CTV News reported, citing government sources it didn’t name.
Ambrose said in a statement yesterday that she won’t allow “a disruption to such a vital component of Canada’s economy” and will name an arbitrator if the union joins the company in requesting one. The strike by 1,700 Canada-based locomotive engineers could disrupt shipments of coal, lumber and chemicals within Canada and to the U.S.
“We continue to offer solutions but are extremely disappointed,” by the company’s response, Daniel J. Shewchuk, the union’s president, said in a statement today from Montreal.
The last major labor disruption at the railway, Canada’s largest, was less than three years ago. The government of Canada ended a two-month labor dispute in April 2007 by enacting legislation to force Canadian National conductors back to work. A federal arbitrator later decided in favor of Canadian National’s contract offer, Walter Spracklin, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto, said in a Nov. 25 note to clients.
Canadian National rose 64 cents, or 1.2 percent, to C$55.64 in Toronto Stock Exchange composite trading on Nov. 27. The shares have increased 24 percent this year.