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CPR union faces back-to-work bill
OTTAWA -- Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said Sunday the Conservative government will table back-to-work legislation after talks with striking rail workers fell apart.
Company spokesman Ed Greenberg said Labour Minister Lisa Raitt released the negotiating parties Sunday afternoon and the government-appointed mediator walked away.
"The legislative process will now commence," Greenberg said in a statement.
A strike by 4,800 railway workers began last Wednesday and immediately halted deliveries of grain, coal, cars and other products.
Raitt had said earlier Sunday the railway workers and the company had until the end of the weekend to find a way to "do their own deal."
"I'm going to know really clearly by midnight tonight, both from what's happening at the table, if there is hope of bringing this to an end, and also what's happening" in the coal mining, agricultural and automobile sectors, Raitt said Sunday on CTV's Question Period, before the talks derailed in the afternoon.
Raitt said sectors relying on rail to ship commodities and products were starting to hit a wall.
"What we're hearing right now is that it's getting more and more tight, it's getting more and more difficult, and it's starting to actually affect their operations, and that's the kind of national economic significance that we're looking for in order to intervene," said Raitt, who called it a "roller-coaster weekend" at the negotiation table.
"They've been attempting to get a deal, but as it becomes more and more apparent the effects on CP, the company, of the strike, things are getting more difficult at the table."
After the talks broke off Sunday afternoon, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents locomotive engineers, conductors and rail traffic controllers, said they were willing to get back to the bargaining table, but didn't expect any positive developments before today.
The union accused the company of bargaining in bad faith, saying CPR wanted a legislated solution.
Greenberg countered Sunday that the union "constantly refused to consider the various options the company was agreeable to that could have minimized the strike and prevented the damage to our customers' businesses and employment levels. In fact, the company indicated its willingness to make arrangements for employees to get back to work. The union refused to have this discussion and withdrew from the talks."
Raitt served official notice to introduce back-to-work legislation in the House of Commons Thursday, so the bill could be introduced as early as today following a week-long parliamentary break.
Both the NDP and the Liberal criticized the move to draft back-to-work legislation on the first day of the strike, saying it undermined the collective bargaining process and provided a disincentive for management to negotiate a deal.
-- Postmedia News
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 28, 2012 A4
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