Canadian National Railway-Engineers Union Talks Break Off
Negotiations between the railway and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union have been ongoing since August with the assistance of federal mediators. The previous collective-bargaining agreement between the parties expired on Dec. 31.
Friday's talks culminated in additional dates being proposed by the TCRC to continue negotiations but Canadian National Railway has declined, said a TCRC spokesman.
"We are very disappointed that CN has declined to continue negotiations as it appears they want to force federal government intervention without having to negotiate," said TCRC President Daniel J. Shewchuk. "We have offered CN further dates for which to continue negotiations but, to our surprise, CN has declined and we have not seen any change in their position over the weekend."
Officials from CN weren't immediately available for comment.
Shewchuk had previously indicated that he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached without any form of disruption but that optimism was tarnished Thursday.
Now, the TCRC is looking at the possibility of filing a complaint of "bad-faith bargaining," Shewchuk said.
"We had proposed a number of options for the renewal of the collective agreement, all of which were rejected by CN," Shewchuk said. "Nevertheless, our position is that we want to continue to negotiate but it is very difficult to negotiate when the other party agrees to an issue and, the next day, removes it from the table."
The locomotive engineers have given the TCRC negotiators a strike mandate should one be required.
-By Dwayne Klassen, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 204-947-1700; resnews@shawbiz.ca
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=zwt0mZzjDDJIeNODwDY8mQ%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
Publié le 23 novembre 2009 Copyright © 2009 Dowjones
Commentaires
Faire un Commentaire