(CanWest News Service circulated the following on June 5.)
MONTREAL — Mediation began Monday in Ottawa between Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and the union representing its 3,200 striking maintenance workers.
Over the weekend, federal Labour Minister Jean Pierre Blackburn appointed his chief mediator to resume talks with the two sides. Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s Maintenance of Way union, who earn about $40,000 a year on average, have been on strike for the last three weeks.
“They [strikers] are holding up as well as can be expected,” said union president William Brehl. “People’s nerves are frayed, but we’re still holding the picket lines.”
Animosity between the two sides has escalated during the strike with the recent arrest of six picketers in British Columbia by CP police. The union has responded by filing a civil suit against Canada’s second-largest rail company.
Brehl said all charges against the six protesters were dropped.
The labour dispute is over salary and working conditions. The union has asked for a 13-per-cent raise over four years, and no changes to the pension and health-care plans used by the 3,200 maintenance workers. CP is offering a 10-per-cent hike over four years, but is asking the workers to spend more on their plans.