Canadian National (CN) said Wednesday that its 1,800 locomotive engineers in Canada have ratified a new collective agreement.
The five-year contract with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) runs through Dec. 31, 2022. It provides wage and benefit improvements in each year of the agreement and modifies work rules that were of concern to both CN and the engineers, the railway said.
CN and the TCRC had reached a tentative agreement in March to renew the labor contract. The tentative agreement with TCRC had been reached without a work disruption, Mike Cory, executive vice president and chief operating officer at CN, had said.
Meanwhile, Canada’s smaller Class I railway, Canadian Pacific, had submitted final offers to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference – Train & Engine and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBRW) in April.
Voting on these offers started at 9 a.m. Eastern time May 18 and closed at noon Eastern Friday. Results had not been released at the time of writing.
The TCRC and IBEW bargaining committees strongly recommended that members reject CP’s offers.
Acceptance of CP’s final offers will avert the potential for a work stoppage. However, if the offers are rejected, CP explained that following the announcement of the vote results, a minimum of 72 hours’ notice must be provided before any work stoppage, including a strike or potential company lockout, could occur.
CP has about 3,000 conductors and engineers represented by the TCRC and around 360 signal maintainers represented by the IBEW.