CN Rail strike would affect cargo, not VIA and GO, union says
Unifor union members at Canadian National Rail could hold a strike vote as early as next week, with a strike deadline in about three weeks.
In all, the vote will involve 4,800 union members at CN who do safety inspections, maintenance and repairs from 18 locations across Canada.
The impact of a strike would be significant, said union head Jerry Dias.
“It will affect rail traffic through the system,” he said, but added this means cargo shipments, not passenger service through areas like Toronto.
“It ought not to have an impact on customers in Union Station going through VIA (Rail) or anything like that,” Dias said.
Mylene Belanger, a spokesperson for VIA Rail Canada, confirmed that the national passenger rail network does not expect an impact on their services.
Metrolinx, which operates GO Transit rail lines throughout the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area and the Union Pearson Express, does not anticipate an impact either. Anne Marie Aikins, manager of media relations for Metrolinx, said most lines are operated by Metrolinx staff, while trains are operated by Bombardier.
Unifor and CN Rail have been negotiating for months and both sides said Wednesday they had been unable to reach an agreement.
The union reached a tentative agreement with Canadian Pacific on Saturday.
“The real issue here is we just got an agreement with CP, and (CN Rail is) saying to us that they’re refusing to match the settlement we have with CP,” Dias said.
Dias told a Montreal news conference that CN is either looking for a conflict or it believes that the government will interfere in the collective bargaining process.
“I can tell you that the government will not be finding the solution with CN,” he said.
“Unifor is not going to accept a settlement by the government. . . we will accept an agreement only after it is ratified by our members and reached at the bargaining table.
When asked later to clarify his comment, Dias stressed that the union would not accept government interference.
A spokesperson for CN Rail said through an e-mail statement that CN’s offer to Unifor is fair, competitive and in line with previous union deals.
“Under CN’s offer, the company’s Unifor employees would remain the highest paid of their trade in the Canadian rail industry,” Mark Hallman, CN Rail’s director of communications and public affairs, wrote in the statement.
As for the potential impact of a strike, Hallman said the company “does not comment on speculative scenarios.”
With files from Star wire services.
