(The following story by Roma Luciw appeared on the Globe and Mail website on June 7.)
TORONTO — Thousands of Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. maintenance staff could be back at work as early as today after the company and Teamsters union hammered out a tentative agreement that will end a nation-wide strike that has dragged on for three weeks.
The two sides reached a three-year contract settlement in the wee hours of yesterday morning, capping a marathon negotiation session that lasted for two straight days and went well into the nights.
“It is a good agreement, it has a lot in it that we like. And not a lot that we don’t like,” William Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s Maintenance of Way Employees Division, said in an interview from Ottawa.
Workers could be back on the job “as early as [Thursday] and as late as Monday,” he said, adding that CPR wants “to get the guys and gals back to work as soon as possible.”
Neither side would divulge details of the agreement until after it has been ratified by the 3,200 Teamsters members.
National Bank Financial analyst David Newman who has a “sector perform” rating on CPR shares, expects the agreement falls between the positions taken by the two sides. The company’s offer was for 3-per-cent, 4-per-cent and 3-per-cent wage increases in each of the three years, as well as improved pensions and benefits. The union was seeking 4.3 per cent a year or 13 per cent over the course of three years.
In a research note, Mr. Newman said CPR will benefit from management’s return to their regular roles, as well as the resumption of capital projects. The striking workers are responsible for the building, inspection, and maintenance of the tracks, bridges, and structures on the network, with some directly involved in track maintenance and the others in capital projects.
The Teamsters unit, whose members earn an average $42,000 a year, has been without a contract since the end of last year. They walked off the job on May 16 after negotiations with the company over working conditions, benefits and wages hit an impasse.
Calgary-based CPR, Canada’s second-largest rail company after Canadian National Railway Co., assigned more than 1,300 managers to fill in for 1,200 employees. The company’s contingency plans have kept freights moving, although it has had to defer expansion and other capital spending projects.
Canadian Wheat Board spokeswoman, Maureen Fitzhenry, a CPR customer, said that although her company has not suffered “any measurable harm” from the strike, it is glad the end is in sight.
“We are anxious to have this labour dispute resolved because when it is on, there is always the threat of delays,” Ms. Fitzhenry said. “Maybe you can limp along with that level of service,” but maintenance problems can spring up at any moment, she said.
The two sides resumed meetings in Ottawa on Monday after the federal Labour Minister appointed Elizabeth MacPherson, director general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, as a mediator to kick-start the talks.