CLEVELAND, August 1 — After more than six weeks on strike, BLE-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers members on Canadian Pacific Railway reached a tentative settlement with the carrier on July 31. The strike will end immediately if the memorandum of settlement is ratified.
Meetings are planned to ratify the settlement over the weekend, meaning that the strike could possibly end by Tuesday. The more that 200 RCTC members began their strike on June 18.
The proposed settlement addresses wages, reinstatement of consent provisions of pension rules, and other rules. The tentative agreement also states that there will be no co-pay for health benefits. Drafting, which was the main cause for the previous memorandum of settlement to be rejected, was also addressed, according to BLE Special Representative Darrell Arnold, who chaired the negotiating committee.
Negotiations between RCTC and Canadian Pacific began on September 1, 2002 with both the union and the company serving notice to commence collective bargaining as required by the Canadian Labour Code. In March 2003, the union filed for conciliation because Canadian Pacific was placing additional demands on the RCTC and the negotiations had stalled. The government appointed a conciliator, and the parties had 60 days to reach an agreement. This period ended on May 27 with no agreement reached. A cooling off period was legally mandated and it ended on June 18, when the strike began.