CN announces tentative labour pact with 600 employees in U.S.
Published: January 22, 2008
Source: Canadian Press
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CHICAGO - Canadian National Railway Co. (TSX:CNR) has a tentative labour agreement with about 600 employees working on former Illinois Central and Chicago, Central & Pacific properties in the U.S. Midwest and the South.

The four-year pact with United Transportation Union would renew, for the first time, an hourly rate for conductors and brakemen on the former IC and CCP. Montreal-based CN has hourly-rate deals in place for virtually all of its U.S. train and engine employees.

If ratified, the agreement would be retroactive to Aug. 1, 2006, and run through July 31, 2010. Other details are being withheld, pending the results of a ratification vote due in mid-March.

"As both parties have learned through the last few years, this new type of agreement improves our operations and service to our customers, our employees' compensation and quality of life, and our relationships in the field and at the bargaining table," Kim Madigan, CN's vice-president of labour Relations, said in a release.

UTU International president Mike Futhey, who assisted in negotiations, said the tentative deal "addressed a number of the concerns voiced by the membership. In addition, issues beneficial to the membership will be addressed in the established labour-management conference committee."

A meeting for local chairmen will be held in Memphis on Feb. 14 for presentation of the agreement before the ratification vote.

Canadian National Railway and its operating subsidiaries span Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico.

The UTU is a transportation labour union representing about 125,000 active and retired railroad, airline, bus and mass transit workers in the United States and Canada.