As
CN returns to normal, CP Rail girds for strike
‘TRAINS WILL STOP’ Workers seeking 4% raise per year
over four years
ALLISON LAMPERT
THE GAZETTE (Montreal)
April 20, 2007
Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said it hopes the resumption of
talks Wednesday night with its maintenance workers will avert
a strike next week.
Even
as legislation brought locked-out Canadian National Railway Co.
workers back on the job yesterday, CP’s 3,000 maintenance
workers are poised to strike next week.
The
workers – who, among other tasks, inspect, maintain and
build tracks – could strike as early as Monday, after a
government-mandated cooling-off period ends. But the Teamsters
Canada Rail Conference, which represents them, is unlikely to
give the 72-hour notice today that is requisite for a Monday strike.
“I’m
not intending to give strike notice (today),” said William
Brehl, president of the Teamsters’s Maintenance of Way Employees
Division.
“But
if we go on strike – and CP knows this – the trains
will stop.”
The
ongoing labour strife at CN, which is to be settled by a government-appointed
arbitrator, is looming over the CP talks.
Brehl
said he believes CP is privately hoping the government will legislate
a deal for the maintenance workers.
“The
company would like the government to make a decision on this contract,”
he said. “Our position is that we want to negotiate. We
don’t want to be legislated back.”
Mark
Seland, spokesman for Calgary-based CP, denied that the company
is looking for government involvement.
“This
is categorically false,” he said. “Our best solution
is a negotiated settlement.”
Unlike
the CN conflict that focused on working conditions, the CP dispute
is about money.
The
workers, who earn about $40,000 a year on average , want a four-per-cent
raise per year over four years.
CP
is offering three per cent a year for three of the four years
and demands concessions for a hike of four per cent in the second
year.
The
Teamsters’ demands would cost CP 60 per cent more than what
the company spent to settle with its other unionized workers,
Seland said.
“The
major stumbling block is that rather large gap,” he said.
Calgary-based
CP Rail is already taking precautions for a possible strike, including
training managers to perform the workers’ day-to-day tasks.
CP
shares dropped 27 cents yesterday to close at $69.14 in Toronto
trading. The stock gained just over nine per cent in the last
year.
