Canadian IBEW Members at CN Rail May be forced to Strike

Steelworkers at Canadian National Railway ratify 4-year contract: 3% a year

by ALLAN SWIFT, Mon Feb 28, 4:50 PM ET

MONTREAL (CP) - A group of 2,250 Canadian National Railway track workers has ratified a new four-year labour contract with the company, the United Steelworkers union announced Monday.

Canadian National, which went through a 30-day strike last year, still has contracts to sign with two unions that are armed with strike mandates, while a third union has reached a tentative settlement.

The United Steelworkers local voted 88 per cent to accept an agreement reached in January, the first contract since the workers joined the Steelworkers last November leaving another union.

The contract, covering the period from Jan. 1, 2004 to Dec. 31, 2007, includes wage increases of three per cent in each of the first three years, and four per cent in the fourth.

The union said it also provides better work rules, more protection against contracting out, better family-workplace balance and "anti-harassment language."

The members maintain and repair CN's track, bridges and structures in Canada.

CN has two more collective agreements to sign, with the Teamsters, representing locomotive engineers and signals workers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing signal and communications staff.

On Sunday, the 730 IBEW members voted 90 per cent to support a strike which might start as early as this week.

However, the Canada Industrial Relations Board is reviewing essential services that must be maintained during a dispute, and "until that decision is rendered by that board there can be no strike or lockout," said CN spokesman Mark Hallman.

The railway kept operating during last year's strike by 5,000 Canadian Auto Workers members who manage trainyards and other functions, but backlogs and lost business cut CN's profit by $24 million.

A spokesman for the signal workers, Luc Couture, said it would be hard for CN to train replacements to maintain the fibre-optic network that monitors CN trains across the country and operates level-crossing barriers.

"Trains would have to slow down a lot," Couture said, adding that CN would not be able to maintain its schedules.

"You can't have a replacement come with two weeks' training to do our job."

In any case, CN spokesman Hallman said he is "optimistic that we can resolve these negotiations and arrive at settlements with the TCRC (Teamsters) engineers and the IBEW without labour disruption."