CN, much like the BC Ambulance Service, is imposing a contract on their engineers, saying that talks with the union have reached an impasse:
CN to impose contract changes after talks hit impasse
Canadian National Railway Co. intends to impose contractual changes this weekend on 1,700 of its engineers after talks with the union representing them hit an impasse.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents the engineers, has fired back after the talks broke off last Friday, and said it is considering filing a complaint with the federal government that the railway has bargained in “bad faith.”
The engineers have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2008.
The question also remains whether the union will accept the work rule changes being imposed on them, or whether it will lead to a strike at the railway.
CN has been renegotiating its labour pact with the Teamsters’ engineers for the past 14 months, and a federal mediator has been assisting the parties since August. But the talks have hit an impasse on rules governing the maximum amount of miles the engineers are able to work a month and wages.
The railway had been seeking to raise the engineer’s 3,800-mile monthly cap to bring it in line with its conductors, whose cap is 4,300 miles a month.
The discrepancy between the two stems back to the fact that the conductors only joined the TCRC after leaving the United Transportation Union in September 2008. As a result, CN’s engineers, who make on average $90,000 a year, work on average 15 to 17 days a month compared with the 16 to 18 days conductors do, the railway says.
Both CN and the TCRC have said they have brought numerous proposals to the table, but have failed to reach an agreement on the work rule changes and wages. CN has said it has also offered to take the matter to binding arbitration, which was rejected by the union.
“After 14 months of trying to bargain new agreements with the union, we concluded further talks would not result in a settlement,” said Mark Hallman, CN spokesman. “If the TCRC has a suggestion to resolve our difference, we’d be happy to meet them as soon as tomorrow (Wednesday).”
But, as it stands, CN intends to implement a 1.5 per cent wage increase for its engineers and to bring their mileage caps in line with the conductors as of Nov. 28. “We made a range of offers and they were rejected, and we think it’s time to move forward,” Hallman said.
The union has already said it is “disappointed” by CN walking away from the negotiation table last week, and that it was considering filing a complaint that the railway had negotiated in “bad faith” after a number of proposed dates to continue the negotiations were rejected last Friday.
“We are very disappointed that CN has declined to continue negotiations as it appears they want to force federal government intervention without having to negotiate,” said Daniel Shewchuk, TCRC president, in a statement last week. “We have offered CN further dates for which to continue negotiations but, to our surprise, CN has declined and we have not seen any change in their position over the weekend.”
Under the Canada labour code, both sides are entitled to strike or be locked out with 72 hours’ notice.
Shewchuk was not available for comment Tuesday, and a spokesperson for the federal minister of labour was unable to say whether a complaint had been filed with the ministry by the Teamsters on Tuesday.
Tags: Bargaining, canadian national rail, cn, engineers, teamsters canada rail conference, Union
