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CN Running Trades to Strike in Canada
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CN Rail downplays Canadian strike concerns <br /> <br />(Reuters circulated the following story by Allan Dowd on January 10.) <br />VANCOUVER, B.C. -- Canadian National Railway Co. sought on Monday to downplay concern about a possible strike by three Canadian unions, saying it remained optimistic a negotiated settlement can be reached. <br />The railway, Canada's largest and North America's No. 5, also said the intervention of the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) last month meant there could not be labor stoppage until regulators determine essential service levels. <br />CN Rail has been negotiating with its Canadian train crews and signal maintenance employees for months and there has been increasing concern among analysts that two of the unions could walk off the job by the end of January. <br />A CIRB official said the board is taking submissions from the company and the unions on what levels of train service must be maintained in a dispute to protect immediate public safety. It has not said when it will issue a ruling. <br />"It depends on what comes in," said Tom Panelli, director of the CIRB's western regional office. <br />Canada's federal labor minister ordered the CIRB to get involved in late December, and the right to strike or impose a lockout is suspended until the board rules. <br />CN said it will bargain with the unions while the CIRB investigates the issue. "The company remains optimistic settlements can be reached without labor disruption," it said in a news release. <br />The United Transportation Union, which represents 2,520 brakemen and conductors, and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents 1,750 locomotive engineers, have expressed concern about the CIRB's intervention. <br />The unions said they already had agreements with CN that set essential service levels. The Teamsters also complained that increasing the number of engineers forced to work during a strike would weaken its bargaining position. <br />"Our position in this matter was and still is grounded in the fact that CN has a sufficient number of qualified locomotive engineers within their management ranks to provide any services required for maintenance of activities," the Teamsters wrote in a letter to its members. <br />The UTU and CN have agreed to more talks, but either side could serve a 72-hour notice of work stoppage as of Jan. 17. The union has said that while it is optimistic for a settlement it has also warned members "to prepare for the worst." <br />Unresolved issues include company disciplinary policies, according to a UTU memo. <br />CN Rail's engineers are now voting whether to give their union a strike mandate, with the results expected Jan. 25, according to the Teamsters. Details of unresolved issues in their dispute were not immediately available. <br />Talks between CN and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents about 630 employees, are still before a federal labor conciliator. <br />A labor stoppage would not include train or signal crews working on the former BC Rail in Western Canada, which negotiated a new contract prior to its acquisition by CN last year. <br />
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