Vol. 71/No. 10      March 12, 2007

The agreement was announced in the third week of a nationwide rail workers strike that began February 10.

The workers walked out over deteriorating job conditions, in their fight for a new three-year contract. Locomotive engineers, track maintenance workers, clerical and shop-craft workers—organized by the Teamsters, United Steelworkers, and Canadian Auto Workers, respectively—continued working under existing contracts during the strike.

The claim by CN bosses that their 600 company personnel could keep the freight trains running and on time proved to be bluster. Shipping containers piled up in the Vancouver and Halifax ports. Unshipped products clogged warehouses across the country. Shortages of parts at one Ford plant in Ontario forced its shutdown. Bosses in the grain, forestry, chemical, and other industries demanded the government force strikers back to work.

The strikers’ rallying cry has been “enough is enough,” referring to the productivity drive for a “precision railway” that CN bosses have been carrying out over the past decade. CN is now the fifth largest railway in North America in terms of annual revenue. Last year the company raked in profits of more than Can$2 billion (Can$1 =US 87 cents). The strikers complained of harassment by CN managers, lack of adequate break time and rest periods, and an increasing workload that compromises safety on the job. The union demanded a 13 percent wage increase over three years.

Since 1950 Ottawa has used strikebreaking laws six times against rail workers, and on 25 other occasions against grain-handlers, port and postal workers, and air traffic controllers.

Under the impact of Ottawa’s threats, and divisions between the UTU officialdom in Canada and the United States, about 680 of the 2,800 strikers returned to work as the government announced its intent to break the strike.

If the one-year pact UTU officials and CN bosses agreed to is ratified by at least 50.1 percent, the workers will receive a 3 percent wage increase and a $1,000 signing bonus. Another 150 union demands that were on the bargaining table are set aside for talks between union officials and the company this fall.

UTU officials are urging workers to return to their jobs even though they are supposed to remain on strike until the four-week ratification process by mail-in ballot is completed. The vote will be tallied at UTU offices on March 26.
 
 
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