Canadian National (CN) workers have rejected the company’s offer to participate in binding arbitration, as the country’s largest rail operator seeks to avoid a strike.
An arbitrator approved by CN and employees would have resolved the labor dispute by deciding the terms of a new collective agreement between the two parties.
CN claims to have presented two proposals. The first aimed to pay workers an hourly wage, instead of paying them per mile traveled, without a schedule. The other modified parts of the current agreement.
“The TCRC (Teamsters Canada Rail Conference) has rejected all offers made to it and has now rejected a voluntary arbitration process,” CN said in a statement.
The Teamsters Canada union, which represents railroad workers, countered that the first offer involved “forced relocation” of workers for months at a time. The second would impose shifts of up to 12 hours – in line with regulations, but beyond the 10-hour cap currently in force, which would increase the risk of accidents, the union says.
“The request for binding arbitration at this late stage of the negotiation process highlights the insincerity and failure of CN’s negotiation strategy,” Teamsters Canada spokesperson Christopher Monette said in an email.
“We firmly believe that binding arbitration can be avoided if CN stopped demanding concessions that would harm workers’ quality of life and undermine rail safety. »
Last month, CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City employees authorized a strike mandate. Some 9,300 railway workers could stop working without new agreements.
Federal Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan intervened, ostensibly to delay a potential strike, by asking the country’s labor board to examine whether a work stoppage would endanger the health and safety of Canadians.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board has extended the deadline to respond to proposals to June 14, CN announced Thursday, making a decision unlikely before mid-July, according to the two railways.