With workers in some areas on strike or locked out and others reporting for work, the union side of the CN strike seems to be in chaos, and now the Canadian labour minister announced plans to legislate an end to the strike yesterday. The previous round of strikes had a major impact on Canada’s trade […]
Oops. Despite their union reaching a tentative deal with CN six weeks ago, CN’s conductors and yard workers overwhelmingly rejected the deal in a ratification vote yesterday. The vote was nearly 80 per cent against. Rotating strikes are now under way, beginning in British Columbia.
CN’s conductors and yard workers began returning to work earlier this week; CBC News and The Globe and Mail have some of the details of the tentative agreement and some background on the intra-union tensions (the Canadian branch may switch affiliations to the Teamsters). Final vote results due March 26. Let it never be said […]
CN and its striking conductors and yard workers reached a tentative deal yesterday, before the federal government could legislate an end to the strike (previously). The union is urging workers to return to work while the deal’s details are disseminated and voted upon. A train accident in northern England that killed one passenger and injured […]
Heavy snow derailed a Norwegian train between Bergen and Oslo on Monday morning; a second train sent in to assist got stuck in snowdrifts, so about 130 passengers were stuck on board for most of the day. No injuries. Ottawa’s light rail expansion project, killed in December, showed some signs of revival last week, but […]
Developments since my last post: the Industrial Relations Board turned down CN’s request to have the strike declared illegal, and now the federal labour minister is threatening back-to-work legislation unless the strike is settled some time today, CBC News reports. Update, 9:40 PM: That CBC link has been updated throughout the day with new information, […]
About 2,800 CN conductors and yard workers have been on strike since the 10th; here are some stories about the strike that have accumulated over the past week: A report by Brent Jang in today’s Globe and Mail notes the increasing impact of the strike on CN’s customers; CN is operating with managers at half […]
At one minute past midnight this morning, 2,800 Canadian National conductors and yard workers represented by the United Transportation Union went on strike after last-minute negotiations failed yesterday. CN is trying to get the strike declared illegal; meanwhile, management is running trains. VIA Rail, Montreal and Toronto commuter services, and several subsidiaries are unaffected for […]
A CN engineer who used to drive GO trains explains the problem behind GO Transit’s move to single-engineer operations (see previous entry). According to him and to a union representative, fatigue — and therefore safety — is the concern, with shifts as long as 12 hours and with no one in the cab to trade […]
Reuters reports that CN’s Canadian shopworkers, clerical staff and truck drivers have voted overwhelmingly to give their union a strike mandate, but negotiations continue. The union would not be in a legal strike position until the 18th, and CN hopes to have an agreement in place prior to that date. CN’s U.S. employees are not […]
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