December 01, 2009
CN strike legislated back to work
George T. Baker
Prince Rupert Daily News
Now into the fourth day of labour action, the federal government has played its hand and introduced back to work legislation yesterday for CN’s 1,700 engineers.
Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen is not pleased about it. Cullen said that this was not the appropriate action and to allow the negotiation process to proceed.
“This is no way to manage your national railway,” criticized Cullen. “It is cow towing to the corporate mugs in Texas who have been running this railway into the ground and the workers along with it.”
But other figures on the North Coast are hoping a resolution can be found sooner rather than later.
Prince Rupert Port Authority president and CEO Don Krusel said he hoped for a quick resolution to striking CN engineers.
The PRPA’s leader told the Daily News that he was concerned about the strike because of what it could do to the Canadian reputation as a credible transportation option for the Asian shippers market.
1,700 engineers walked off the job last Friday as collective bargaining negotiations broke off between their union, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, and CN Friday night.
“We would like to see everyone back to work. We are obviously concerned about the service, but we know that CN will do their best to maintain service. But we would like to see an agreement reached as soon as possible,” commented Krusel.
Krusel added that CN had indicated to PRPA executives that the management personnel would maintain adequate service levels in the meantime.
This is the second time west coast Canadian ports have faced work action during the last 12 months.
About 450 ship and dock foremen, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 514 on the West Coast began work action last year. Not Local 505 as the Daily News reported last week.
While Krusel said that earlier work action was mostly a Vancouver issue, it as compounded by the CN labour dispute and now what was most at risk was the reputation of the ports in Asia.
“It’s not about what’s factual in terms of the issue at hand, but how the labour problems are perceived in Asia,” said Krusel.
TCRC president Daniel Shewchuk said in an interview earlier Saturday that while the union made “substantial movement” during Friday’s talks, the railway wouldn’t budge.
“We got very little, if nothing, back from the company, which basically drew the line in the sand,” Shewchuk said Saturday.
The union has said that raising the mileage cap – the maximum distance engineers can travel in one month – by 500 miles to 4,300 miles would require some workers to work seven days a week, with no time off, and cause layoffs.
CN says its locomotive engineers work on average 37 hours a week, and the new cap would increase that to approximately 41 hours. Engineers would also work an average of 16 to 18 days per month, up from 15 to 17 days under the old cap, the railway has said.
A senior government official, who declined to be named, said the strike ``could basically jeopardize the progress we’ve made on the economy and inflict significant damage to the Canadian economy during the busy Christmas season.’‘
A government release Monday says legislation could be introduced if CN and the union representing the engineers are unable to negotiate a settlement.
The strike would likely effect separate commodities differently; according to Ridley Terminal Inc. chair Bud Smith.
Smith told the Daily News that container shipments would likely take more of hit on reputation than coal shipments because of time sensitivity.
“Our products are typically less time sensitive than, say, a product that is in a container. But there is no question that the perception of instability has a negative impact,” said Smith.
Smith added that one of the big pieces of the value package for RTI is that the coal terminal has had stability within its workforce.
“We have a highly efficient workforce and we provide a service that is up there with any terminal in the world. We would like to maintain that reputation,” added Smith.
The last strike at CN, Canada’s largest railroad, was in February 2007. It ended after the federal government passed back-to-work legislation, citing the importance of the rail service to the economy.
