Ottawa Considers Back-to-Work Order For Striking Rail Engineers

November 30, 2009 7:00 a.m. EST

Ottawa, Ontario (AHN) - The Canadian Government is set to calendar in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon a back-to-work order for Canadian National to end the locomotive engineers' strike.

The legislation is seen as the solution after the rail firm and Teamster Canada Rail Conference failed to reach a deal. The union rejected on Sunday night the offer by Canadian National, which prompted the job walk-off.

Ottawa officials are wary the rail strike may hamper Canada's recovery from the recession, so they are stepping into the industrial deadlock by the possible issuance of the back-to-work legislation. They also cited the coming holiday season when transport is vital as another reason behind the order. This is not the first time legislation would be used to settle a labor strike in the transport sector. In 2007, Parliament issued a back-to-work order for 2,700 CN conductors.

This time, those who went on strike are 1,700 locomotive engineers who belong to Teamster. They have been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2008. The engineers earn an average salary of $100,000 a year. Aside from wages, the other issue which CN and Teamster could not agree on is the number of kilometers engineers could drive monthly.

The engineers, however, expressed willingness to submit their deadlock to binding arbitration.

CN, said in a statement, it would implement its labor contingency plan in which qualified management staff will function as locomotive engineers until it reaches a new agreement with Teamster. It added locomotive engineers in northern Alberta, parts of northern and eastern Ontario, northern Quebec and parts of eastern Quebec and New Brunswick are not part of the strike because they have a separate collective agreement with CN.