CN Urges Support of Back-To-Work Legislation

By 250 News

three CN locomotives sit in the local yard

Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn rose in Parliament today to introduce back-to-work legislation aimed at ending the 13-day strike at Canadian National Railway.

28-hundred train conductors and yard service workers at CN walked off the job back on February 10th, a federal mediator has been working with the two sides since Tuesday of this week.

Prior to entering the House of Commons, Minister Blackburn told reporters talks were going better today, but an agreement had not yet been reached.

If the weekend fails to produce a negotiated settlement, the back-to-work legislation will be back before Parliament on Monday.

For its part, Canadian National is urging for a quick passage of the legislation.  But no one is certain when the law would become effective, possibly by the middle of next week.

Management personnel at CN have been filling in for the striking conductors in a bid to keep freight trains moving and the company says it's "implemented a number of process improvements and additional management resources continue to be identified, trained and deployed, mostly to CN’s Western Region."  Also, several UTU workers have come back to work, particularly in CN’s Eastern Region.

In the meantime, both Canfor and West Fraser say the strike is having a dramatic impact on their operations, with three shutdowns at three Canfor operations being blamed in part on the job action.

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