Canadian National Railway And Canadian Pacific Kansas City Lock Out Employees
Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have both locked out their employees after deals couldn’t be reached by 12:01am on August 22nd.
CN said in a news release that “the union did not respond to another offer in a final attempt to avoid a labour disruption.”
The rail company says their last offer improved wages and would have seen employees work less days in a month by aligning hours of service in the collective agreement with federally mandated rest provisions. The offer also proposed a pilot project for hourly rates and scheduled shifts on a portion of the network.
In a separate news release, CPKC says, “Throughout nearly a year of negotiations, CPKC has remained committed to doing its part to avoid this work stoppage. CPKC has bargained in good faith, but despite our best efforts, it is clear that a negotiated outcome with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference is not within reach.”
Both say that without an agreement or binding arbitration, it had no choice but to finalize a safe and orderly shutdown and proceed with a lockout.
“At this time, the responsible path forward for the union, the company, our customers, the Canadian economy and North American supply chains, and the public interest is for TCRC and CPKC to engage in binding arbitration to resolve all outstanding disputes,” CPKC said.
