Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has rejected a request by Canadian National Railway to initiate binding arbitration in a labor dispute with the Teamsters union, a spokesman for the minister said on Thursday.
In a letter to CN Rail’s lawyers, MacKinnon said it was the shared responsibility of the company and the union to negotiate in good faith. The letter, sent on Wednesday, was released by the Teamsters.
Talks between CN Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City - the country’s two largest rail companies - and the Teamsters are deadlocked, with each side blaming the other.
CN Rail said it was disappointed by MacKinnon’s decision, saying he would have to reconsider if the union did not “get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table”.
CN and CPKC, I love ya, but no one’s going to buy the bullshit that stalling and pushing for binding arbitration is what constitutes being serious and engaging meaningfully at the negotiating table.
Because the contract they are trying to shove through is nothing but bad for existing employees; and even worse for new ones. Huge cuts to benefits and pay, huge demands on extra working hours, shifts, and rotations; along with forcing any employee to move anywhere at any time with zero notice. All from a company posting record profits.
The workers just want a 7% raise to keep up with inflation. Average salary is 45k unless super senior.
Binding arbitration means at-least some of these horrendous measures would be forced.
Strike is the only option and from what I’ve been hearing, management is just going to try to use the strike against them.