Canada’s major railways are resuming stalled negotiations with workers after meeting with Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon on Monday.
The minister said the railways and the Teamsters union agreed to restart talks Wednesday in hopes of averting a crippling strike that would shut down freight traffic from coast-to-coast. “We expect these negotiations to be productive and substantive engagements that meet the needs of this moment. That is how settlements negotiated by unions and employers are reached at the bargaining table,” MacKinnon said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) after representatives from all sides in the dispute met at his office in Gatineau.
MacKinnon told reporters earlier in the day that he had called the union and railways to his office to emphasize the importance of averting a work stoppage, saying some $400 billion in goods from virtually every sector of the economy move by rail each year. He said he was disappointed in the lack of progress in negotiations, which have been largely stalled since the spring when Teamsters members working at Canadian Pacific Kansas City and Canadian National voted overwhelmingly to strike.
The Teamsters union said in a statement the “goal of the meeting was to discuss increasing the pace and frequency of discussions at both companies,” and confirmed that talks would resume Wednesday in Calgary and Montreal.
Looming over the labour negotiations is a ruling from the Canada Industrial Relations Board expected this week on whether some shipments should continue to move in the event of a work stoppage. Then-labour minister Seamus O’Regan referred the issue to the board after the railways and unions both decided there were no activities they needed to maintain. The board has to make a ruling before Aug. 9, and neither side can call for a strike or lockout until a decision is made.
The Teamsters union blamed the referral for stalling talks, saying the “federal government temporarily suspended workers’ right to strike.” “Absent the threat of a work stoppage, neither company appeared willing to compromise or show any flexibility in their demands,” the union’s public affairs director Christopher Monette said in a statement.
The Teamsters have said the “stumbling blocks” in negotiations are demands from the railways for concessions around “scheduling, forced relocation, and crew fatigue.” But the railways claim their offers would offer better work-life balance for workers by placing them on schedule and paying hourly, as opposed to by mileage.
This is an excerpt from the iPolitics article.