The latest news that I have:

CANADIAN NATIONAL

-The CN management claims that the strike by the United Transportation Union of Canada is illegal. According to the company, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) will convene on 19 February to determine whether the strike by the 2,800 members of the UTU of Canada was legal.

CN's claim was filed on 10 February and argues the strike's illegality due to CN's belief that the UTU's strike notice was deficient and that the UTU of Canada did not have proper authority from the UTU International to declare a strike.

Reports from unofficial and/or enthusiast circles suggest that legal action may yet be pending against striking workers.

-Paul Thompson, President of the UTU International, has seen fit to issue a statement in which he declares the strike action to be unauthorized in accordance with Article 85 of the UTU Constitution. Mr. Thompson also quotes UTU Canada General Chairperson Rex Beatty as saying that, "[T]he union's constitution can't supersede the Canadian labor code."

UNITED TRANSPORTATION UNION OF CANADA

-Despite the claim of the UTU of Canada, there is not ongoing strike information provided to UTU members at utucnnegotiations.ca. Their last posting is of 09 February. Heck, I'm ahead of that.

-Another Canadian union has declared solidarity with the UTU of Canada. The United Steelworkers' National Director Ken Neumann declared this past Saturday that the union supported the UTU's strike against CN. According to Neumann, the USW and the UTU signed a "strategic alliance" in summer 2006, and the support expressed for the UTU is a part of that. Among the USW's members are 4,000 MOW personnel at the Canadian National and 1,200 clerks and similar positions at the Canadian Pacific Railway.

-The Federal Agriculture Minister, a fellow named Chuck Strahl, has indicated that the Goverment have no intention to intervene in the strike at this point in time. The Canadian Wheat Board---the "largest single rail shipper in Western Canada"---had apparently asked Ottawa to intervene. Ottawa declined, citing the current case before the CIRB and the fact that CN management was apparently capable of maintaining service at this point in time. The CWB is, in the words of mapleleafweb, "the sole marketer of western Canadian wheat (and barley) that is sold for human consumption, both domestically and abroad."

COMMENTARY

Mr. Thompson's message makes me wonder just what kind of strike fund or other resources the UTU of Canada can call on to stick it out. In his words, "[O]ur brothers and sisters in Canada have been put in a position of having to fend for themselves."

I have not heard of any strike-related violence or any strike-related accidents. I can only hope and pray that none of these sort of things occur.

I hope that this publication serves some value to those who are interested in the situation. My apologies for not updating this sooner.

UPDATE: A Canadian chap who's done work for organized labor up there has an opinion, posted here. He is, of course, not fond of the UTU International's position.

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DISCLAIMER: I have no pecuniary interest in the Canadian National Railway or any other railroad. I have no interest or association with any element of railroad labor organization. My interest in this is purely from the perspective of an amateur industry enthusiast.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Courtesy of a poster earlier in the day, I now have the text of contract offers made by the respective parties in this dispute:

UTU of Canada's offer

Canadian National Railway's offer

These come from a site ostensibly established by the UTU of Canada. As a result, I believe that these documents are legitimate and authentic. If they are not, I hope that someone will inform of this as soon as possible. The UTU document is 19 pages of inside baseball that I can occasionally interpret, but I'd need more than is contained within. There may be more reference material at the negotiations site. The CN document looks like a brief memorandum to confirm an oral communication.

My commenter pointed out that the CN position amounted to 12 hours on, 8 hours off, 12 hours on, for six days with the seventh day being one of rest. I have no opinion on the merits of this offer. I will, however, state that the eight hours generally seems to start the minute you're off the clock, which can mean that you're stepping off a locomotive or boarding a crew van in the middle of nowhere. Therefore, you may not get eight hours of sleep before the phone rings again and you're called to duty. It's this sort of thing that makes me respectful of those who are employed in rail transportation and who manage to safely conduct transportation on a daily basis.

My hope is that the strike is resolved shortly, with an agreement that protects the CN's financial position, the interests of agreement employees, and the interests of the customers of the CN. We shall see, and coverage shall continue as best I can.

UPDATE: Additional information that I neglected to include in earlier updates notes that the UTU International has apparently weighed in on the strike earlier in the week, saying that the UTU of Canada was not authorized to strike the CN without the approval and/or involvement of the International in the negotiation process. It would appear that the Canadians promptly ignored that.

Runningtrades.com suggests that the International has done this sort of thing before, which it regards as having weakened the hand of the Canadian group in negotiations with the CN.

DISCLAIMER: I have no pecuniary interest in the Canadian National Railway or any other railroad. I have no interest or association with any element of railroad labor organization. My interest in this is purely from the perspective of an amateur industry enthusiast.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If I understand things correctly, the UTU members employed at the Canadian National Railway will be going on strike in less than an hour and a half.

CNR President E. Hunter Harrison stated earlier in the week that he believed a new contract, but also said that management and other non-UTU employees of the CNR would attempt to maintain service if the UTU walked out. This is not an unusual move; if I understand my history correctly, it was done at the Florida East Coast back in the 1960s and at the Norfolk and Western during a clerks' strike in the late 1970s; I have heard stories of Robert Claytor himself crewing a train.

The details of any contracts are unknown to me, but it is apparent that the UTU are unhappy with whatever the CNR is offering. For what it's worth, the attitude of current and former CNR employees towards Mr. Harrison has been negative. However, it is also worth noting that one of the freedoms any railroad man has is the right to complain about management. Under Mr. Harrison, late of the Illinois Central, CNR financial performance has increased dramatically.

Based upon a statement from the Canadian Auto Workers Union, the CNR may have plans to try and bus CAW members through prospective UTU picket lines, a move which the CAW opposes. The CAW, which concluded a new labor agreement with the CNR in late January of 2007, also pointed out that CAW members are legally entitled to refuse work normally performed by UTU members.

The UTU represents ~2,800 conductors and yard service employees on the CNR. My uneducated guess is that this includes all crafts other than locomotive engineers, which are presumably covered by the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers.

Updates as I find them.

EDIT: I suddenly realized that I wasn't using the far more common "CN" to refer to the Canadian National Railway. Yeah, I know it's not 1960 any more. By the way, any CNR employee, agreement or non-agreement who'd like to weigh in on this is more than welcome to; short of some sort of civil or criminal lawsuit by the CNR or other parties, I offer anonymity.

DISCLAIMER: I have no pecuniary interest in the Canadian National Railway or any other railroad. I have no interest or association with any element of railroad labor organization. My interest in this is purely from the perspective of an amateur industry enthusiast.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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According to a report, it appears that the United Transportation Union of Canada may have given 72 hours notice to the Canadian National Railway that they intend to strike. The report also indicated that the membership voted nearly unanimously in favor of the strike.

Updates and information as I receive them.

DISCLAIMER: I have no pecuniary interest in the Canadian National Railway or any other railroad. I have no interest or association with any element of railroad labor organization. My interest in this is purely from the perspective of an amateur industry enthusiast.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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