Canadian National faces Oct. 28 strike

   Canadian National Railway may be facing an Oct. 28 strike by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents 3,300 CN workers, after the two parties were not able to a new contract during the negotiation period.
   The collective agreement expired July 22, and negotiations ended on Oct. 7, with CN rejecting the teamsters’ proposal to continue another round of talks. According to the teamsters, the sticking point in a new deal is CN’s insistence on making its employees work longer hours with less downtime between shifts
   “We’re extremely disappointed by CN’s refusal (to extend the mediation period),” a teamsters spokesman said when the negotiations broke off. “The railway uses an old tactic: pointing a gun to its workers’ heads to force them to make concessions.”