(The Canadian Press circulated the following story by Nelson Wyatt on March 12.)
MONTREAL — CN Rail tabled an improved offer Thursday evening to end a bitter strike by 5,000 of its workers, said a company spokesman.
“We’re trying to move ahead to try to reach an agreement,” said Mark Hallman, a CN spokesman.
“In pursuit of that, we have now tabled an enhanced offer to the union.”
He would not discuss specifics or a possible timetable for the offer being put forward to striking members of the Canadian Auto Workers. But he said he was optimistic the offer would lead both sides to restart stalled contract talks.
Gary Fane, the union’s chief negotiator, would not speculate on what form an offer could take.
“I don’t know what an enhanced offer is but my experience has been that it’s better than the one that we had,” he said.
“We’re waiting for CN Rail to give us an offer and we remain positive and optimistic that we’re going to work something out.”
But he denied earlier reports that said the union was looking for a 25-per-cent increase on an earlier offer when talks broke off Sunday.
“It’s not true the union was asking for a 25-per-cent increase,” he said. “A modest increase is what we were looking for.”
The enhanced offer was one of three options proposed by CN to the union earlier this week. The others were a “cooling off-period” with a return to work while bargaining resumed or binding arbitration.
The strike by cargo loaders, mechanics and clerical workers is entering its fourth week.
Major customers say they are struggling but are coping with the strike. CN is the continent’s biggest hauler of timber products and is also a major transporter of chemicals, grain and autos.
Hallman said Thursday that service is “close to near normal” although intermodal traffic for last week was down.
“The intermodal traffic for that week was down 30.5 per cent, largely as a consequence of the picketing which has been at the intermodal terminals which has discouraged some drivers from coming in and out,” he said.
He said police had been called in some cities to enforce injunctions obtained by CN to keep entrances to the terminals clear. Riot-equipped police have had to intervene twice in Montreal.
But Hallman said the railway’s merchandise transportation sector, which would include shipping such things as forest products, vehicles and grain, was up 5.7 per cent for the week of Feb. 29 to March 7 compared to the same period last year.
“The combined merchandise and intermodal traffic for that week was off only 4.7 per cent from the year earlier so that is an improvement from the week earlier across the board.”
Managers, retired workers who have been called in and subcontractors filling in for striking workers are “working long hours,” Hallman said.
The workers went on strike after the unionized employees rejected the company’s last offer, which would have provided annual wage and benefit increases of 3.5, 3.1 and 3.1 per cent in 2004, 2005 and 2006, respectively.
Union leaders recommended acceptance a few weeks ago but shopworkers voted 63 per cent to reject it, while other groups turned it down by a 57 per cent majority.
On Feb. 27, CN put forward a revised offer, which it said dealt with a non-monetary issue the CAW identified as key to a settlement.
Fane said the morale of the strikers is high but “we’re looking forward to getting a deal with the employer and getting back to work.”