Get away from adversarial reactions to the strike, and focus on the future.

[CliqueofOne]

Recently, Bryon DeBaets and Rick Johnston met with me individually to discuss
the relationship between CN and the CAW. Since our strike, I think we all
have wondered how long it would take to heal the wounds experienced on both
sides. Our striking employees and the company lost money, but we also feared
we had lost the momentum CN and the CAW were trying to build to make our
company even better.

After our January 23rd agreement failed ratification, I told the CAW
leadership my concerns about the effects of a strike not only on our
relationship, but employees and our business. CN lost $35 million in revenue,
which has made us very conscious of the dollars we are spending on such things
as overtime payments. Also, it was always my belief that a strike would make
us rethink the way we are performing our work. As I told the CAW bargaining
team on more than one occasion, asking our managers and information technology
experts to do the work of the CAW employees opened the door for those
professionals to explore new, more efficient ways of running our business.
And, after the conclusion of the strike, our management employees informed us
of many initiatives we could pursue which would make it easier and faster to
do our jobs. That efficiency, however, could well result in job reductions.

During CN's April 22 conference call regarding our Q1 results, I was asked by
a stock analyst whether there would be job reductions as a result of the
strike. I responded that due to the efficiencies we discovered, we could cut
anywhere from 500-1200 jobs in the next 18 months. However, we will discuss
this matter with the CAW, as it is my hope that we can find new ways of
working that uses the best skills of our employees. To clarify, the decisions
we make about our CAW workforce will be based on whether we can work together
as a group to make CN the best transportation service provider in North
America.

In this regard, Bryon, Rick and I are taking certain actions that I hope will
improve our relationship. One of those decisions involved the subject of
"amnesty" for the very few employees who took things too far during the
strike. As you may know, I made no commitment to grant a general amnesty
related to strike activities. In fact, before the second ratification vote
was conducted and in response to a CAW Railfax issued on March 15, I released
an email on March 16th to clarify that I had not agreed to a blanket request
for amnesty.

That said, after talking to Bryon and Rick, I believe there was a genuine
misunderstanding in the final hours of bargaining about how we would review
strike-related court cases. After much thought, and their assurances that the
CAW would work with CN to improve our relationship and business, I have
instructed our legal counsel to take no further action against our individual
employees in the civil court cases that arose as a result of the strike.

I take this step reluctantly because I believe everyone is accountable to obey
the law and court orders, no matter the circumstances. However, I don't want
CN's relationship with you to suffer because of the actions of a few
employees' unacceptable behaviour. Still, in future cases, I hope all
employees will understand my position: laws and court orders must be
respected even in difficult times.

Bryon and Rick have been effective advocates of their members' positions. I
am counting on everyone ? on both sides of the dispute - to get away from
adversarial reactions to the strike, and focus on the future.

E. Hunter Harrison
President and CEO[:p][:o)][8][xx(]