Unions shut down CP’s ‘final’ contract offers

Teamsters say negotiations will resume immediately in an attempt to avoid a strike.    Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (CP) said its “final” contract offers to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference – Train & Engine (TCRC) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) were voted down Friday by the two unions.
   “Negotiations with the company will resume immediately in an attempt to achieve an agreement and avoid a work stoppage,” Teamsters Canada said Friday. “Should talks fail or CP not wish to bargain, workers will have no choice but to exercise their legal right to strike.”
   However, at least 72 hours’ notice is required before any work stoppage can occur.
   CP has about 3,000 conductors and engineers represented by the TCRC and 360 signal maintainers represented by the IBEW.
   A work stoppage was scheduled to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on April 21, but was averted due to the Minister of Labour directing the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to administer the ratification vote on each of the company’s final offers to the TCRC and IBEW.
   However, both unions strongly recommended their members reject the offers.
   The vote ran from May 18 to noon Eastern time Friday.
   “CP is disappointed with the outcome of the vote, given that both final offers provided for significant improvements to wages, benefits and working conditions that are consistent with agreements recently reached with other CP unions in both the United States and Canada,” the railway said Friday.
   CP is the smaller of the two Canada-based Class I railways, the larger being Canadian National, which said Wednesday that its 1,800 locomotive engineers in Canada ratified a new agreement with the TCRC.