Back to work order

Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn announced plans, Wednesday, to legislate 2,800 striking CN Rail conductors and yard workers back to work.
Blackburn said he would introduce legislation to end the 13-day strike in Parliament today, but expected the bill could take several days to pass unless there is an all-party agreement on the issue.
“I contacted both parties to inform them that the situation couldn’t continue, that Canada’s economy is being severely impacted,” Blackburn told Parliament. “Our legislation is ready.”
United Transportation Union (UTU) local 1923 chairman Andrew Robertson said wrangling over the legal status of the strike has delayed talks between the union and CN. Local 1923 represents about 50 conductors and yard workers in the Prince George area.
“When we went on strike it wasn’t to be legislated back, it was to gain leverage in our negotiations with CN,” Robertson said. “Obviously we don’t want to see that. We were hoping to be in negotiations with CN at this point.”
The Canadian Industrial Relations Board ruled the strike was legal, Monday. CN Rail had challenged the legality of the strike because it is not endorsed by the union’s U.S.-based head office.
On Tuesday, UTU negotiators rejected a request by CN to return to work for a 60-day cooling off period.
Robertson said it is impossible to know what will happen to negotiations if workers are legislated back.
“I don’t know what would be the best-case scenario. It boils down to what the federal government decides to do. It is something we were trying to avoid,” he said. “Ideally the best solution would be to negotiate a solution.”
One possible route for the government would be to appoint a third-party arbitrator to settle the dispute.
Robertson said the UTU hasn’t examined the possibility of an illegal strike at this time.
“I don’t think anybody’s thinking about that scenario right now.”
Worker rest periods and wages have been the key issues in the negotiations. UTU negotiators are seeking to retain employee control over scheduling rest periods after multiple shifts and wage increases of 4.5 per cent, 4.5 per cent and four per cent over three years.
CN Rail is operating trains with managers standing in for striking workers. However, the strike has caused major backlogs in traffic. On Tuesday, Canfor announced temporary shutdowns at four of its B.C. mills because of the lack of train cars to ship their product to market.
In a press release Wednesday, CN Rail president and CEO E. Hunter Harrison said legislation is necessary to end the strike.
“Although CN’s preference has always been to achieve new labour agreements through free collective bargaining without third-party intervention, we believe government legislation is warranted at this time given internal UTU divisions that have hampered the union’s bargaining efforts,” Harrison said. “CN believes the federal government must proceed expeditously with legislation providing for a mediation/arbitration process to settle a new collective agreement between CN and the UTU. We believe Parliament should support such legislation to ensure its quick passage.”