Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Tentative Deal heads off Lockout plans at CN

Last minute discussions heading late towards Monday evening's 11:30 deadline paid off, as CN and Unifor reached a tentative deal that will keep rail traffic moving across the nation.

Federal Labour Minister Kellie Leitch delivered the news of the breakthrough in talks on Monday night, though no details were being released regarding the deal.

A short statement from CN Rail President Claude Mongeau, provided official notice of the lifting of the lockout notice and highlighted the success in Monday evening's talks.

"We are very pleased that the company and union were able to find common ground on a tentative new labour contract. This settlement forecloses the prospect of a potential labour disruption that would have harmed CN's employees, its customers and the Canadian economy."

Unifor President Jerry Dias also provided a short observation on the agreement:

"We're pleased that we were able to reach a negotiated agreement and avoid a major national lock-out of our members,"... "We were able to find solutions to the concerns raised by our members – this is best achieved at the bargaining table."

Further background from Unifor outlined the process ahead, as the union holds its ratification vote.

With the tentative settlement now in place, it's anticipated that service levels at CN will continue on as they were before the dispute.

The news will be particularly welcome at terminals at the Port of Prince Rupert, CN provides the only rail access into and out of the Port and a labour disruption would have had a major impact to terminal operations along the Prince Rupert waterfront.


National Post -- CN Rail and Unifor reach last minute tentative contract deal to avoid lockout
CBC -- CN Railway, Unifor reach tentative agreement
Globe and Mail -- CN Rail reaches tentative deal with union, avoiding lockout

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