Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City have both filed Notices of Dispute with Canada’s Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the railroads announced today (Friday, Feb. 16) in separate press releases. The filings request appointment of a Federal Conciliation Officer to assist in reaching agreements with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
CN, in its statement, said it “strongly believes an agreement can be reached through the collective bargaining process” with the 6,000 CN engineers, conductors, conductor trainees, and yard coordinators represented by the union in Canada.
“CN continues its efforts to modernize its railway in a manner that will deliver the best possible service to our customers, while providing our employees with better work conditions and better work/life balance,” said Pat Whitehead, CN executive vice-president and chief network operating officer. “Recent regulatory changes have challenged crew availability and CN is proposing to address that issue through a modernization of the compensation model. A strong supply chain is good for all stakeholders, the economy, and our employees.”
CPKC said the TCRC Train & Engine division represents about 3,200 engineers, conductors, and train and yard workers, while the union’s Rail Canada Traffic Controllers represents approximately 80 rail traffic controllers. The railroad said it has been negotiating in good faith with both groups since September 2023, and has “offered both a fair and balanced agreement with wage and benefit increases and more schedule predictability and quality of life improvements for its T&E employees.” The railroad said the two sides remain far apart following the latest negotiating session on Jan. 29.
“CPKC has an excellent track record of successful collective bargaining with its unions,” the railroad said in its statement. “However, Federal Conciliation has been required in nine of the 10 collective bargaining rounds of negotiations between the TCRC-T&E and CPKC since 1993.” The most recent agreements between CPKC and the unions expired on Dec. 31, 2023, but remain in effect under Canadian labor law until a new agreement is reached.
In a message to its members, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said the filing of the Notices of Dispute was “a development that has taken us by surprise,” and that the union “is actively working to respond to these notices and will be providing further updates to the membership very soon.”
