(Reuters issued the following on June 18, 2009.)
OTTAWA — Canadian National Railway Co (CNR.TO) said on Thursday it is awaiting Ottawa’s decision on its request for a conciliator to revive contract talks with the Teamsters union, which represents 1,700 locomotive engineers.
The railway, which asked the minister of labor for the appointment on June 12, said it has not met with the union since late 2008. The company would not specify what issues require resolution.
The union was not immediately available to comment on its collective agreement, which expired Dec. 31.
The labor minister was looking into the issue, a spokesman said, but made no further comment.
“We think that the appointment of a conciliator would be able to help the parties move forward and to work things through,” CN’s director of communications, Mark Hallman, told Reuters.
“We’ve attempted to negotiate the renewal of the collective agreement since last September, we have asked the Teamsters to come to the bargaining table a number of times since we last met at the end of 2008, however, the union has declined.”
The request for a conciliator is a normal step in the bargaining process, and the request can come from either party, Hallman said.
“We think, in this time of economic uncertainty, that it’s in the interests of both the company and the employees to have economic certainty,” he said.
CN, which operates in both Canada and the United States, reported a bigger first-quarter profit in late April as cost-cutting more than offset lower revenue.
Shares of CN were down 13 Canadian cents at C$47.51 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and off 37 cents at $41.87 in New York.