Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has rejected a request by Canadian National Railway to initiate binding arbitration in a labor dispute with the Teamsters union, a spokesman for the minister said on Thursday.
In a letter to CN Rail’s lawyers, MacKinnon said it was the shared responsibility of the company and the union to negotiate in good faith. The letter, sent on Wednesday, was released by the Teamsters.
Talks between CN Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City - the country’s two largest rail companies - and the Teamsters are deadlocked, with each side blaming the other.
CN Rail said it was disappointed by MacKinnon’s decision, saying he would have to reconsider if the union did not “get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table”.
They gon strike and the Canadian economy is gonna suffer.
Good. The economy needs to pay the most it can bear for labour. We pay the most we can bear for goods and services.
Every cent of that will be passed on the to the consumer. So your goods and services will get more expensive.
So you want the unions (as both CN and CP are under strike mandates) to be forced back to work instead? That only helps the railways, not the employees.
Besides, I bet you don’t even know what they’re fighting for or that it’s the railways who are gonna lock out the workers, do you?
Fuck CN with that binding arbitration
Power to Teamsters!✊
Nice to see our government making a good decision
The “negotiating table” is CN giving what workers are asking for, that’s what unions are for. Binding arbitration is a slap in the face to Canadian workers
The problem is management isnt willing to negotiate. Everything here is done in bad faith and they plan to use politics to force their way. All workers want is a cost of living wage; while CNR wants to cut EVERYTHING significantly. All from a company posting record profits.
CN and CPKC, I love ya, but no one’s going to buy the bullshit that stalling and pushing for binding arbitration is what constitutes being serious and engaging meaningfully at the negotiating table.
Because the contract they are trying to shove through is nothing but bad for existing employees; and even worse for new ones. Huge cuts to benefits and pay, huge demands on extra working hours, shifts, and rotations; along with forcing any employee to move anywhere at any time with zero notice. All from a company posting record profits.
The workers just want a 7% raise to keep up with inflation. Average salary is 45k unless super senior.
Binding arbitration means at-least some of these horrendous measures would be forced.
Strike is the only option and from what I’ve been hearing, management is just going to try to use the strike against them.
