CN offers binding arbitration to TCRC

CN yesterday announced the company has formally offered the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) to enter into binding arbitration.

This process has a mutually agreed upon independent arbitrator settle the labor dispute by evaluating the demands of each side and deciding on the terms of the new collective agreement, CN officials said in a press release.

The TCRC has rejected all offers put to them and has now rejected a voluntary arbitration process, they said. CN initially attempted to change the collective agreement to improve work life balance for employees and productivity through scheduling and hourly wages. Currently, engineers and conductors do not work on a schedule and are paid on a legacy miles-based system.

As the union declined to negotiate substantively on that matter, CN made a simplified offer to the union in May that continued to be aligned with government guidelines on work and rest and achieved some productivity gains, CN officials said. The union rejected this offer as well.

All offers align with the latest government regulations and Duty and Rest Period Rules (DRPR). Implemented in May 2023, DRPR specifically defines the requirements related to hours of work and rest periods for employees who are in positions designated critical to safe railway operations. Claiming they are unsafe is false, CN officials said.

Last week, CN and other parties took part in a case management conference organized by the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to discuss the minister of labor’s request for clarity on the continuation of activities during a work stoppage. As part of this review process, the parties had until May 31 to submit replies to the CIRB. The CIRB has now extended that deadline to June 14, and has asked that specific themes identified in the submissions filed by stakeholders be addressed in the replies.

The CIRB has not yet indicated how long it will take to make a decision, and neither a strike nor a lockout can happen until then. A strike or lockout is unlikely to happen before mid-to-late July, CN officials said.

TCRC represents about 6,000 conductors, conductor trainees, yard coordinators and locomotive engineers across CN’s network in Canada.