Teamsters Canada Rail Conference

A cloud hung over the gates of Canadian National Railway that rained sleet down on the labour dispute below.

The Prince George operation of CN was taken over, as were their facilities across Canada, by managers who are filling in for striking members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) representing the locomotive engineers.

"We're sucking it up," a striking worker told The Citizen on Sunday about the drizzle and the negotiation impasse. "We've had a really good turnout for the picket line, lots of support from our members, lots of support from the community. We've had people stopping by with coffee, a lot of encouragement, it has been good that way."

The pickets kicked in when talks broke off on Friday in Montreal.

"a TCRC strike is particularly unfortunate because CN has repeatedly offered, and the union has refused, to submit the contract disagreements to binding arbitration in order to avoid a labour disruption," said Mark Hallman, director of communications and public affairs for CN. "A labour strike at this time is in no one's interest, as it will hurt CN's customers, its employees and the Canadian economy.

"CN will implement its labour contingency plan, under which qualified management personnel will work as locomotive engineers," Hallman added. "CN is committed to provide the best possible service to its customers in the circumstances and will do so until it can reach a new agreement with the TCRC."

TCRC president Daniel Shewchuk said that mediators had been involved in the negotiations since August, in vain, and that charges of bargaining in bad faith were being contemplated by the TCRC against CN. The employer made unilateral changes to the collective bargaining agreement that basically locked them out already, he said, so a strike was the only remaining option for the union.

“It is obvious to us that CN is counting on the federal government intervention to settle the issues rather exploring solutions to a negotiated agreement,” Shewchuk said. "The TCRC has offered CN, through the mediators, to withdraw/suspend their strike notice if CN would withdraw/suspend their notice of the change to the Collective Agreement and get back to the table to negotiate."

According to Shewchuk, CN advised the TCRC that it plans to incorporate a 1.5 per cent wage increase coupled with the requirement to have locomotive engineers work an additional 500 miles per month over the amount required by the present Collective Agreement.

"This change would require some of the locomotive engineers to work seven days a week with no time off and cause layoffs within the ranks of the conductors, trainmen and yardmen," he said.

Neither side offered any sense of what the coming days would hold, or how long this strike might continue. In the meantime, the fire barrels burn at the gates to Prince George's CN facilities, and the trains inside keep rolling.