Labour Minister Plans To End CN Rail Strike

The Conservative government plans to introduce back-to-work legislation in the CN Rail strike after failure to reach an agreement with the United Transportation Union.  

Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said Monday he intends to force a resolution to the labour dispute with legislation.

“Employers and many groups said they would like to see our government acting,” he said.  “We will process Bill C-46 like we had said a few weeks ago.”

It was unclear how quickly the legislation could make its way through Parliament, but it was virtually identical to a bill that was drafted more than a month ago just before a tentative agreement was reached between CN and its employees.

Opposition politicians were hesitant to criticize the back-to-work bill, saying they wanted to study it first.
 
“We’ll have a look at the legislation and make an evaluation,” said NDP Leader Jack Layton, who added that he would have hoped the government would not have to resort to a back-to-work bill.

“We’ll see the reaction of the unions, we’ll see what’s coming,” said Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, adding that he was still hopeful that a contract agreement could be reached through bargaining.

CN Rail said earlier Monday a countrywide contract cannot be reached with striking conductors.

Montreal-based CN Rail said that one group in the union is reporting for work, awaiting the outcome of the `raid’ application by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference pending before the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

But the company said with no CN agreement on wages and working conditions, another UTU `faction’ was engaged in rotating strikes.

CN said it invited the union back to the bargaining table to negotiate regional settlements.

CEO Hunter Harrison said the national bargaining process is “broken” after eight months of talks.

Union members in Canada have been on strike since Feb. 10.

Industries across Canada had been urging the federal government to end the labour dispute.

GO Transit in Ontario has so far been able to run its trains without the labour dispute causing major problems.