Talks with CN break down, two sides to regroup in January

MONTREAL,Que.–CN and Unifor have been unable to reach a new tentative collective agreement, after months of negotiations and long hours this week at the bargaining table. Unifor had four CN bargaining tables meeting concurrently since Monday morning, in Montreal.

Unifor opened ne‎gotitiations with CN on September 19, in advance of the expiry of the current agreement on December 31, 2014.

CN said it  has bargained intensively with Unifor to reach a contract settlement for its 4,800 members at CN in Canada before the union’s current contract expires on Dec. 31, 2014.

In a statement, CN said it  remains optimistic that it can reach an agreement with Unifor in the near term, following CN’s successful negotiation of a tentative labour agreement earlier this month with the United Steelworkers (USW) union Local 2004 for approximately 3,000 CN maintenance-of-way employees represented by the USW in Canada.

There was some progress made over the week, but there have been several stumbling blocks on non-economic issues that prevent the talks from moving forward.

“There is frustration on the part of all of the bargaining committees that CN has refused to address the issues necessary that would help move discussions along,” said Unifor President Jerry Dias, who has been participating in the negotiations.

The two sides will schedule future meetings in January to continue the negotiations.

Unifor (formerly the Canadian Autoworkers Union) has five agreements with CN covering four bargaining units – clerical/intermodal; mechanical; CNTL truck owner-operators; and excavator-operators.

Unifor represents 12,500 rail workers across Canada, and more than 305,000 members across the country in every economic sector.