(The Canadian Press circulated the following story by Allan Swift on February 27.)
MONTREAL — Labour negotiators for Canadian National and striking Canadian Auto Workers held a short negotiating session Thursday, the first time since 5,000 CAW workers walked off the job last Friday.
CAW spokesman Abe Rosner said the union presented the company with a series of employee complaints about decreased working conditions that had to be resolved before a settlement could be reached.
The complaints included harsh suspensions handed down to workers as well as what the union termed as “harassment” of workers who reported safety and rules violations.
“I hope they (CN) will listen seriously because we as a union cannot bring back a recommendation to our membership to stop the strike and vote on a new agreement unless we solve this problem,” Rosner said in an interview.
“We didn’t realize the extent of it (the complaints) before and we do now. And now it’s the company’s turn to realize it and do something about it.
Rosner said the number of worker complaints only became clear to the union last month when members rejected a recommendation to approve a tentative agreement. He said the union was willing to continue talks with the company to address the complaints.
CN spokesman Mark Hallman refused to discuss the nature of Thursday’s negotiations, but said “CN is a fair an equitable employer.
“We are not going to discuss specific issues,” he added.
“Bargaining is supposed to be at the bargaining table and not through the media.”
Hallman said trains continued to run across the country. But he said there were some delays and some diversions of time-sensitive containers to trucks, as managers cope in the absence of trainyard mechanics and crane operators, clerical workers and customer service agents.
Meanwhile locomotive engineers from Winnipeg threatened Thursday to walk off within 48 hours unless CN management addresses their complaint of unsafe working conditions.
Gilles Halle, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which recently took in the former Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union, said that managers hooking up trains at the Winnipeg terminal are not doing a proper job and are putting engineers at risk.
The union said there have been a number of incidents, one which seriously injured an engineer in the Winnipeg yard.
“Clearly the company’s replacement workers in Winnipeg have little or no understanding of the safety and operating rules and regulations that Canadian operating employees have to work under,” said Halle.
But Hallman said CN managers are safely operating trains and properly doing the jobs of striking workers.
“We implemented a safety plan in conjunction with this labour disruption and shared this information with Transport Canada,” Hallman said.
“They’re comfortable with the plan,” he said, adding Transport Canada has inspectors who regularly monitor the situation. “They have not found any issues.”
However, another CN union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, also issued a release saying it was concerned about safety of its members.
“The CN managers who are replacing CAW workers are starting to look beat,” said official Kevin Kearns in a statement.
“They don’t know what they are doing in the first place. And now with fatigue setting in we’re getting very concerned for the health and safety of IBEW members working for CN.”
Hallman said CAW workers at Ford and General Motors plants in Ontario have resumed loading new vehicles onto rail cars and unloading parts delivered by CN trains.
Ford had to send home thousands of workers earlier this week after assembly lines ran out of parts that CAW workers at Ford refused to unload out of solidarity with striking CN members.