MONTREAL — Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have gone on strike against Canadian National Railway in Canada.
The 750 signal and communications workers walked out as of 11 a.m. local time on Saturday, a union official confirmed to the CBC. The union had previously given the railroad a 72-hour notification of its intent to strike [see “CN receives strike notice …,” Trains News Wire, June 16, 2022].
Railroad spokesman Johnathan Abecassis told the CBC the company was following an operational contingency plan allowing it to continue operations “safely and at normal levels.” CN said it has offered to resolve wage and benefit issues through binding arbitration.
Personal opinion…at least here in the U.S., any persons involved in interstate or intrastate commerce should not be allowed to strike(consider them like government employees), instead if an impasse is determined to have been reached in contract negotiation then the matter is sent to binding arbitration(as would be set by law).