(The Canadian Press distributed the following article on January 23.)
MONTREAL — CN Rail announced early Friday that it had reached tenative agreements with three locals of the Canadian Auto Workers (news – web sites) union, averting a countrywide strike by 5,000 workers.
Details of the three-year deals, which would replace contracts that lapsed Dec. 31, are being withheld pending ratification by union members. The tentative agreements, retroactive to Jan. 1, cover the railway’s shopcraft employeeas, clerical workers and intermodal yard employees. CN remains in talks with another six unions whose contracts also expired at the end of last year. Those unions represent another 8,500 employees.
CAW members had been prepared to walk off the job at midnight Thursday. But the deadline was extended as both sides reported progress and if the talks extended into the night.
Word of the agreement came in a statement from the railway at about 3:30 a.m.
The original strike deadline passed at midnight Wednesday but the union agreed to extend it for 24 hours.
Wages, pensions and shift-work schedules were key sticking points in the talks.
National CAW representative Abe Rosner said Thursday the two sides had come closer on the wage issue, but wouldn’t provide details.
“There was an offer before our original strike deadline. . .which was better than what we had seen before,” Rosner said in an interview.
CN workers in Montreal and Winnipeg would be have been affected by a strike.
Railway spokesman Mark Hallman said earlier that CN had contingency plans in place to ensure freight service and commuter trains in Toronto and Montreal would not be disrupted in the event of a strike.
But Rosner warned that a strike would be noticed, noting that the CAW represents all CN customer service representatives as well as workers who transfer freight containers between trains and trucks.
The employees covered in the tentative contracts include CN clerical workers as well as trades vital to repairing and keeping the engines and cars rolling – electricians, pipefitters, sheet-metal workers and heavy-duty mechanics.
Rosner said that aside from higher wages, veteran employees wanted to work fewer weekends and evenings. The union was also trying to improve the employees’ pension plan, he said.