The union representing greater than 9,000 employees at Canada’s two largest railways says public security is at stake as contract negotiations floor to a halt this month, with a possible strike on the horizon.
Teamsters Canada president Francois Laporte mentioned calls for by Canadian Nationwide Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas Metropolis Ltd. are “non-negotiable.”
“CN and CPKC intention to remove all safety-critical relaxation provisions from our collective agreements. These provisions are essential to fight crew fatigue and guarantee public security,” he mentioned in a press launch on Monday.
“We need to attain a negotiated settlement, however their calls for are non-starters for the teamsters.”
In consequence, a “work stoppage looms,” the union mentioned.
CN and CPKC requested the federal labour minister Friday to nominate a conciliator for the bargaining course of over a brand new collective settlement for prepare conductors, engineers and yard employees.
The discover of dispute begins the clock on a doable strike or lockout, which might happen as quickly as 81 days after the request, in early Could.
CN says current regulatory adjustments to relaxation provisions have made it tougher to search out obtainable crews.
“Our provide, which was refused by the union, assured predictable schedules and consecutive days off for workers to particularly deal with work-rest stability, whereas preserving provide chains fluid,” spokesman Jonathan Abecassis mentioned in an e mail.
That proposal would see staff on a scheduled 40-hour work week, with not less than 10 or 12 hours of relaxation between shifts — relying on whether or not they’re at house or away — and both two or three consecutive days off every week, in compliance with federal guidelines.
Abecassis mentioned the union’s calls for would place stress on provide chains and extra prices on shoppers.
Security at stake, says union
CPKC spokesman Patrick Waldron says the corporate has supplied wage hikes, high quality of life enhancements and predictable schedules with assigned days off, however that the railway and the union “stay far aside on the problems.”
Federal conciliators have been concerned in negotiating 9 of the ten collective agreements since 1993 between Canadian Pacific and the prepare and yard employees represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Convention, the railway famous.
Canadian Pacific and Kansas Metropolis Southern accomplished their deal to turn into Canadian Pacific Kansas Metropolis final 12 months, making a community that stretches from Halifax to Vancouver and the U.S. Gulf Coast all the way down to southern Mexico.
Fatigue administration stays a think about security considerations round freight rail, lingering on the Transportation Security Board of Canada’s “watchlist” since 2016.
New guidelines got here into impact final Could that cap freight employees’ most shift size at 12 hours, down from 16. In addition they raised the minimal relaxation interval between shifts to 10 hours at house and 12 hours when away from house, versus the earlier six hours and eight hours, respectively.
In June, a Federal Court docket choose discovered Canadian Pacific responsible of contempt of courtroom for workers working excessively lengthy hours in 2018 and 2019. The railway vowed to enchantment.
The present collective agreements transcend what rules require for relaxation, Teamsters Canada spokesman Christopher Monette mentioned. For instance, engineers — who drive the prepare — and conductors who oversee schedules and communication can restrict their shift to 10 hours reasonably than the 12-hour ceiling stipulated below federal guidelines.
“We plug holes within the rules that we imagine exist and we search to to enhance them to the good thing about our members and to the good thing about the general public,” Monette mentioned in a telephone interview.
The union is hoping for “incremental” features on current relaxation provisions, he added.
In March 2022, Canadian Pacific skilled a two-day work stoppage as a result of a dispute over pay, advantages and pensions earlier than either side agreed to enter binding arbitration.
In November 2019, a rail strike gripped the nation for eight days till CN and three,000 railroaders reached a tentative deal, ending a job motion that halted shipments, triggered layoffs and disrupted industries throughout the nation.
A number of incidents this month have pushed house the hazards of rail work.
On Friday, two crew members have been injured when 4 CPKC locomotives slammed right into a stopped prepare and derailed Friday night time east of Revelstoke, B.C., sparking a hearth.
The Transportation Security Board additionally mentioned officers have been deployed to the scene of one other Canadian Pacific derailment Saturday about 200 kilometres farther east in Area, B.C.
A number of employees at main American railways have been additionally killed in separate incidents for the reason that begin of the 12 months.
