Labor Agreed Deal on Canada's Biggest Railroad

Canada’s biggest railroad has reached a last-minute tentative agreement with one of its unions, averting a lockout that had threatened to delay imports from Asia and compound a port logjam on the West Coast of the United States.

Canadian National Railway and Unifor, the union representing its 4,800 mechanical, clerical and trucking workers, struck a deal late Monday, just before the railroad’s deadline to lock out the workers.

 

“I’m delighted to say that Unifor and Canadian National Railway have been able to come to a tentative agreement,” the Canadian minister of labor, K. Kellie Leitch, said outside the bargaining room. “CN will be running at full capacity tonight and tomorrow.”

CN operates freight trains on tracks across Canada and the United States, but Unifor represents only Canadian workers.

The two main unresolved issues had been pay and benefits, a Unifor executive said Monday.

Details of the tentative agreement are being withheld pending ratification by Unifor members, CN said in a news release. The union is expected to announce the results of the ratification vote in the next three weeks.

“I’m elated; it came right down to the wire,” said Jerry Dias, Unifor’s national president. The labor minister “found a way to make sure the corporation knew that there had to be a negotiated settlement, and her strong statements in that regard were pivotal.”

A lockout could have spurred disruptions of shipments of grain and other commodities and goods across Canada and impede operations at the country’s biggest port, Vancouver.

Automakers in Ontario like Ford Motor, Honda Motor and General Motors, and companies that ship crude oil by rail like Keyera were monitoring the situation.

Retail companies and ports, particularly on the Pacific Coast, had feared the impact of a lockout at CN.

American ports on the West Coast only resumed full operations over the weekend after a tentative labor deal late Friday ended a dispute that has caused months of disruption to trade, but port officials said it would take six to eight weeks to clear a backlog of containers.

The Retail Council of Canada, an industry group, had asked the government to step in to help avert a lockout, saying even a short disruption could have had a major impact on retailers as many keep only minimal inventory.