CN's Canadian locomotive engineers have ratified a new collective agreement

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A CN Rail locomotive is moved onto a siding at the marine terminal in Halifax on Tuesday Dec. 1, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

MONTREAL - Canadian National Railway's 1,800 locomotive engineers in Canada have ratified a three-year collective agreement that provides for both wage increases and benefit improvements.

The deal endorsed by members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference includes a nine per cent increase in wages through 2014. It is retroactive to Jan. 1.

Non-monetary gains include improvements in grievance procedures and rest time, the union said, adding that it made no concessions.

"We used a very different strategy for this bargaining round and it paid off, showing that the Teamsters Union can be both a watchdog for workers and a partner for the employer," said union president Rex Beatty.

A tentative agreement was reached before the old collective agreement expired in December.

CN (TSX:CNR) chief operating officer Keith Creel said the round of bargaining that produced the agreement "bodes well for the future of our relationship and ability to address issues of mutual interest in a constructive way that benefits CN's customers and all of its other stakeholders."

Canada's largest railway has operations that span Canada and mid-America, connecting ports in British Columbia, Montreal, Halifax and the Gulf of Mexico.