Carriers: Rail unions' request to end mediation is 'premature'

The National Carriers' Conference Committee (NCCC) announced last week that it has not reached an impasse with any union that would warrant a release from mediation.

The committee, which represents the nation’s freight railroads in national collective bargaining, issued its statement in response to two rail unions' request for a release from mediation. The railroads maintain the unions’ request is premature, National Railway Labor Conference officials said in a press release. The parties currently are in mediation under the auspices of the National Mediation Board.

The request came from the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers – Mechanical Division. Collectively, the two unions represent about 20% of the 115,000 employees participating in the current national bargaining round.

Meanwhile, Canadian Pacific launched a "fact-based information hub" about the status of its negotiations with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC).

CP, TCRC and federal mediators have been meeting in an effort to achieve a negotiated settlement that would avert a work stoppage. TCRC members at CP earlier this month voted in favor of a strike that could begin Wednesday.

TCRC represents about 3,000 of CP’s locomotive engineers and conductors.