CN, Teamsters Reach Agreement

OTTAWA --- Canadian National Railway and the Teamsters union representing 1,700 striking Canadian locomotive engineers reached a contract agreement today just as Parliament was preparing to force them back to work.

Labor Minister Rona Ambrose announced to the House of Commons that the two sides had reached agreement on a contract to replace one that expired Dec. 31, 2008. There were no immediate details as to terms, reached in back-and-forth dialogue in Montreal carried out by two federal mediators.

Minister Ambrose made the brief statement in the House of Commons just before it was set to debate back-to-work legislation that would have ended the strike, now in its fourth day.

The union membership will have to ratify the agreement, but the ratification vote could come while the engineers are back at work.

CN offered on Tuesday to accept binding arbitration on wage and benefit issues and to drop its earlier unilateral change to monthly work hours and small increase in pay for engineers. CN had raised engineers’ monthly mileage cap from 3,800 miles to 4,300 miles and given them a 1.5 percent wage increase after 14 months of failure to reach a new contract. Citing that move, the TCRC struck. The TCRC had made two proposals to end the strike, on Saturday and on Sunday. Both were rejected by CN.

The House of Commons was scheduled Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. ET to debate legislation forcing the engineers back to work. It would have required binding arbitration. The legislation was sure to pass as the Liberal Party, the largest of the opposition parties, had indicated it would support the minority Conservative government.

Contact Courtney Tower at ctower@sympatico.ca.