(The Canadian Press circulated the following story on March 8.)
MONTREAL — A legal strike at Canadian National Railway that has plagued freight-train service since Feb. 20 showed no sign of a resolution today after weekend contract negotiations broke off.
Shippers, meanwhile, were getting impatient with train delays and said the federal government may have to intervene to protect the economy.
The railway and the Canadian Auto Workers representing 5,000 clerical, customer service and trainyard employees reported talks broke off at midnight Sunday and no further meetings were scheduled.
CN spokesman Mark Hallman said the railway has withdrawn all contract proposals. However, a deal reached Jan. 23 and accepted by the CAW before it was rejected by employees “remains on the table,” he said.
“There are no new bargaining sessions planned although informal dialogue with the union continues,” Hallman said.
Union spokesman Abe Rosner said that CN (TSX: CNR) has “gone back to square one,” to the offer rejected by the union membership.
“We’ve made all kinds of progress since then and now they (CN) say they want to go back to what the members rejected and walked out on strike on,” said Rosner. “It makes no sense. ”
Bob Ballantyne, president of the Canadian Industrial Transportation Association, said shippers’ patience is wearing thin.
“If there is not an early resolution to this dispute the shipper community will be looking for firm and decisive action from the government to end this walkout,” Ballantyne said in a news release.
He said one company shipping regularly from southern Ontario to Western Canada has suffered cost increases of more than $70,000 per day to deliver by truck.
“The consequences for the Canadian economy are too great and the well-being of all Canadians is too important to be held ransom to this dispute.”
Hallman said trains are being slowed by the strike, especially intermodal shipments that move by trainyards where CN managers are filling in for striking crane operators and maintenance personnel.
In the first full week of the strike, Feb. 22 to 28, intermodal traffic fell by 26 per cent compared with the previous week, he said. But carload, the other main category involving shipments like forest products, increased by 4.4 per cent. Hallman said intermodal service has improved since.
John Bescec, vice-president of international trade for the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters, said clients are experiencing delays of six days to more than two weeks with deliveries of containers.
He said trucks were already facing delays at CN’s large Brampton, Ont., intermodal terminal before the strike.
“Matters have become even more complex now with the strike going on,” said Bescec.
“It all boils down to added costs for importers.”