Rail workers reject binding arbitration offer as strike threat still looms, CN says

Canadian National Railway Co. CNR-T says rail workers have rejected its offer to enter into binding arbitration, as the country’s largest railroad operator looks to steer clear of a strike.

The process, when agreed to, sees a mutually approved arbitrator settle the labour dispute by deciding the terms of a new collective agreement between the parties.

CN says it has put forward two proposals: one looked to pay hourly wages to workers on a schedule, in a change from the longstanding practice of pay per mile with no schedule; the other aimed to extend parts of the current arrangement.

Teamsters Canada has countered that the first offer involved what it called “forced relocation” of workers for months at a time, while the second would compel shifts of up to 12 hours — in line with regulations, but beyond the 10-hour ceiling currently available to employees and upping the risk of accidents, the union says.

Last month, employees at CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. CP-T authorized a strike mandate that could see some 9,300 workers walk off the job if they are unable to reach new agreements.

Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan, in an apparent move to delay a potential strike, stepped in by asking the country’s labour board to review whether a work stoppage would jeopardize Canadians’ health and safety. A decision is unlikely before mid-July, according to both railways.