(CanWest News Service circulated the following story by Scott Deveau on May 17.)
TORONTO — About 3,200 Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. employees began picketing late Tuesday after failing to reach a labour agreement with the railway, but CP said Wednesday that operations continue across the country.
Striking members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s Maintenance of Way Employees division began blocking trucks at loading yards across the country, including locations near Vancouver and Toronto, said William Brehl, its president.
“We’ve got all of our picket lines up and running,” he said. “These intermodal yards are shut down. No trucks are coming and going.”
But the railway disagreed about the effect the strike was having on operations.
“Train service is running as normal,” said CP spokesman Mark Seland. “There is obviously some picketing activity going on, but nothing that’s impacting train service.”
Seland said picketers have the right to inform incoming trucks at the rail yards about the nature of the dispute, but they cannot obstruct them. He said the railway would seek injunctions if they did so.
He said, as far as he knows, union members were only handing out pamphlets to truckers entering the yards.
“Slowing trucks by 10 minutes won’t have an impact on service,” Seland said.
A spokeswoman at Vaughn Intermodal Terminal near Toronto said trucks were moving fluidly in and out of the terminal.
The striking workers are responsible for building and maintaining tracks, bridges and other structures. They walked off the job shortly before midnight local time on Tuesday. The union members have been working without a labour deal since Dec. 31. Contract talks broke off on April 28 when the two sides failed to reach an agreement over wages, seniority issues and working conditions.
The union is seeking a 13 per cent wage increase over three years, which the railway said was out of line with 10 per cent increases it has negotiated with other unions. The average yearly salary for workers on strike is $40,000.
About 1,300 managers are replacing the 1,200 striking track inspectors. The remaining 2,000 union members are responsible for capital projects, which will deferred until the dispute is resolved, Seland said.
In February, a 15-day strike by conductors and yard workers at Canadian National Railway Co. contributed to a $1-billion reduction in the country’s trade deficit that month by preventing automotive, grain and chemical shipments across the country, according to Statistics Canada.
That strike ended with back-to-work legislation being passed, a move that Jean-Pierre Blackburn, the federal labour minister, said he would enact in the CP strike if it posed a significant economic threat. He encouraged the two sides to return to the bargaining table but no meeting has been planned.
Some shippers, including the Canadian Wheat Board, expressed concerns that a prolonged strike may lead to similar disruptions as the CN stoppage. But many analysts, and the company itself, say the impact of this strike will be minimal.