Labor disruptions again hit the Canadian National Railway after workers overwhelmingly rejecting a tentative contract leading to pickets and lockouts in some cities.þþA 15-day strike in February led to plant closings and shipping disruptions throughout North America, but the union said on Wednesday that it would try to limit the current walkout’s impact on rail customers. þþHowever, later in the day, the Montreal-based railroad locked out about 280 workers in five cities who had originally intended only to remain off the job for a few hours.þþAbout 2,800 conductors and yard workers began a rotating strike after 79 percent of the members of the United Transportation Union at the railroad rejected a one-year agreement providing for a 3 percent wage increase and a signing bonus of 1,000 Canadian dollars ($870).þþTim Secord, the national legislative director of the Ottawa-based union, said the rotating pickets were re-established just before midnight Tuesday to pressure the railroad to resume talks. þþ“C.N. has now seen fit to lock out our members at these locations effectively escalating the level of disruption,” Mr. Secord said on Wednesday night. “That is not what we want.”þþA spokesman for Canadian National, Mark Hallman, said the lockouts were necessary to maintain the railroad’s operating schedules.þþ“We have to have a predictable source of manpower resources,” Mr. Hallman said, adding that the railroad will continue to lock out striking workers “at the company’s discretion.”þþThe union will continue with its plan for rotating strikes despite the lockouts, Mr. Secord said, although it will not take any action that could disrupt commuter trains in Montreal and Toronto.þþAccording to Mr. Secord, the union’s members are largely satisfied with the economic portions of the tentative agreement. Their concerns he said, are more focused around work rules and surveillance of employees by the railroad.þþThe previous walkout led to shipping delays and parts shortages that forced the Ford Motor Company of Canada to temporarily close an assembly plant in Ontario. þþChemical, paper, lumber, coal, sulfur and grain producers also experienced production and shipping problems. Canadian ports, which handle merchandise from Asia bound for the United States, often on Canadian National trains, also became congested, adding to delays.þþAfter the federal government threatened to introduce back-to-work legislation that would have imposed a contract through arbitration, the two sides worked out the tentative agreement.þþMr. Hallman said the railway would operate with management employees, as it did in February, if the labor shutdown expands.þþ
Source: NY Times
