Engineers Launch Strike Against Canadian National

Locomotive engineers in Canada launched a strike against Canadian National Railway early Nov. 28 after talks in the hours before the strike deadline failed to bridge the differences between management and labor.

The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents about 1,700 train engineers at CN, said talks broke down Friday evening, just ahead of a midnight deadline the union set.

“We are disappointed but not surprised,” said TCRC President Daniel J. Shewchuk. He charged “CN has resisted any real negotiation in what we believe is an attempt to force third party intervention.” The union believes CN wants Canada’s government to step into the process.

CN, which said it will implement a contingency plan to manage the railroad’s train operations, said it “repeatedly offered” to submit their disagreements to binding arbitration but that the union refused.

CN had declared an impasse this week in their long-running, mediated contract talks. It then imposed a 1.5 percent wage hike and a work rule change to increase engineers’ monthly work time to match that of conductors in locomotive cabs, and TCRC responded with a strike notice.

News reports early Saturday said the engineers, who drive locomotives for the largest railroad in Canada, began leaving their jobs soon after the deadline passed.

CN said it will put “qualified management personnel” in their place to keep as much traffic rolling as possible. It also said engineers will continue to run trains in some provinces under separate agreements. But the company said “a labor strike at this time is in no one's interest, as it will hurt CN's customers, its employees and the Canadian economy.”

The company also went through a lengthy strike early in 2007 with the United Transportation Union that represents train conductors and some railyard workers. Although the company also tapped managers then to replace strikers, trains slowed and freight backed up at various ports and around the nation. The government eventually ordered UTU members back to work while the two sides resumed talks.

Although TCRC does not have members in CN’s extensive U.S. rail network, a strike in Canada would affect freight volume in and out of the U.S. market as well.