CN announced on January 15 that it has negotiated a tentative labour agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers (TCRC-RCTC) union that represents rail traffic controllers in Canada. The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to approximately 180 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by union members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote before the end of February 2015.
The announcement followed an announcement by CN on December 19 advising that it had negotiated a tentative labour agreement with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union that represents locomotive engineers and conductors working on the company’s Northern Quebec Internal Short line. The four-year agreement would provide wage increases and benefit improvements to 93 employees. Details of the agreement are being withheld pending ratification by the affected TCRC members. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote by the end of February 2015.
On December 8 CN announced today that it had reached a tentative agreement with the United Steelworkers (USW) union Local 2004 to renew the labour contract for approximately 3,000 CN maintenance-of-way employees represented by the USW in Canada. The current CN-USW labour agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2014. USW members inspect, maintain and repair CN’s track, bridges and structures in Canada. The union is expected to announce ratification results before the end of January 2015.
Jim Vena, CN Executive Vice-President and COO, commented that: “We are pleased to have reached a new four year agreement with the Steelworkers before the current contract expires at month’s end. The discussions reflected a desire to address issues of mutual concern and generated solutions for both sides.”
On the other hand, CN and Unifor have been unable to reach a new tentative collective agreement, after months of negotiations. Negotiations opened on September 19, in advance of the expiry of the current agreement on December 31, 2014. The two sides will schedule future meetings in January to continue the negotiations. Unifor has five collective agreements with CN Rail, which cover mechanics, clerical workers, excavator operators, and truck drivers. Unifor Local 100 represents skilled trades in mechanical shops and Unifor Council 4000 represents intermodal, clerical, mechanics and owner operators. Unifor represents 12,500 rail workers across Canada.