On Tuesday, 30 August 2016 we resumed negotiations with the CN Rail with the assistance of the three Federal Conciliators, after a short period of not meeting and have been bargaining for the past 3 weeks straight.
We have been working towards a process to synchronize the expiration of our collective agreements with that of the TCRC-Locomotive Engineers’ collective agreements. We are pleased to be able to convey that on Friday, 16 September 2016; every General Chair on CN Lines, both CTY (Conductors, Trainmen, and Yardmen) and LE (Locomotive Engineers) has agreed to meet with the Company at the same table when negotiations resume. The Company has likewise agreed to work with both the CTY and the LE in an effort to come to agreeable terms.
We have agreed to extend the conciliation period until 01 May 2017 and the TCRC LE’s General Chairs have committed to begin their negotiation process several months early. It has been agreed that all parties will begin discussions on 01 March 2017, in order to negotiate and renew separate agreements with common expiration dates. This will not change the expiration date of the current 1.1 and 1.2 collective agreements. All the collective agreements are still covered off and are protected by provisions of the Canada Labour Code. If we are unable to achieve satisfactory results, the CTY and LE’s bargaining committees simply revert to their original time frames for bargaining.
There are many benefits to having common expiration dates for the CTY and LE’s, not the least of which are not being required to cross each other picket lines in the event of a work stoppage. While there is still a lot of work left to do, we are confident that we will be successful in establishing a formidable negotiating team with both the head end and tail end working in solidarity for the betterment of their members.
In solidarity,
TCRC CTY National Negotiations Committee
Click here to view the original signed negotiations update, or click here to view the September 16th memorandum of understanding.
