MONTREAL-Days after the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the Canadian National Railway Company failed to reach an agreement on a labor contract, which subsequently led to the 1,700 Canada-based TCRC members that are CN employees going on strike, CN officials said today it has made a new offer to the TCRC.
At the heart of the matter is a decision made by the CN to increase engineers` wages by 1.5 percent and raise its monthly mileage cap to 4,300 miles from 3,800 miles. TCRC-represented conductors currently have a 4,300-mile monthly cap limitation, and TCRC-represented engineers have a 3,800-mile monthly cap limitation.
CN said on November 23 that with this rule change-for mileage limitations-both groups of employees working in a locomotive cab will be working under one consistent rule, and the engineers will see an overall compensation increase, adding that engineers currently work 15-to-17 days per month. The company added that it reached an impasse with the TCRC after negotiating for 14 months before invoking these changes. The previous contract between CN and the TCRC expired December 31, 2008.
But earlier this week, CN said it is willing to make the following concessions in a good faith effort to reach a settlement: agree to binding arbitration on wage and benefit issues; and roll-back the 4,300-mile monthly cap for locomotive engineers to 3,800 miles, on the condition that the TCRC withdraws its work rule demands from the bargaining table.
"This is a good faith effort to break the logjam," CN Director, Communications and Public Affairs Mark Hallman, told LM. "At this point, we are still awaiting a response from the [TCRC]. They have their work rule demands, and we have our mileage cap. We`ll drop our demands if they drop theirs."
TCRC President Daniel J. Shewchuk said in a statement that on November 28 the TCRC offered a possible solution to the CN to resolve the current impasse. According to Shewchuk, the solution offered to CN by the TCRC through the Federal Mediators was to submit the wage portion of the dispute to final and binding arbitration upon successful resolution of the other outstanding issues.
"CN must accept their responsibility in this dispute as well," said Shewchuk. "We do not feel our position on wages is excessive as they are in line with what CN has negotiated with other Unions. Nevertheless, in an effort to move the process forward we indicated that we are prepared to submit the issue of wage increases to final and binding arbitration."
Prior to the strike, CN said if a strike were to occur it would implement a labor contingency plan, with qualified management personnel working as locomotive engineers, with the objective of providing the best service possible for customers until a new agreement is reached.
And a report in the Toronto Star quoted Bob Ballantyne, president of the Canada Industrial Transportation Association as saying "CN would be very hard-pressed to maintain any comparable level of service after more than a few days."
A Reuters report said that the Canadian government is trying to work on an end to the strike and may have the support of the country`s Liberals, its biggest opposition party, to fast-track a bill that could end the strike by the end of this week.
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