CN workers back on the job after tentative deal reached with UTU

OTTAWA – The federal government has shelved back-to-work legislation ordering striking CN rail employees to go back to work after the company and the railway reached a tentative agreement this past weekend.

Details of the deal weren’t immediately available. But the United Transportation Union confirmed that while it is maintaining its strike mandate, it will command 2,800 conductors and switchyard workers to go back to work.

The pending back-to-work legislation surly motivated both sides to reach an agreement, but the union may have also been pressured after watching several hundred workers voluntarily cross picket lines last week and return to their jobs.

Nearly 400 workers trickled back to work in Atlantic Canada. They were followed by a group of workers in Sarnia, Ont. who returned to their posts to clear a backlog of freight at chemical refining facilities in the area.

Federal Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said in a statement that the bill will not be called for debate while the government waits for the results of the ratification vote on March 26.

“(The government) remains prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure the strength and stability of the Canadian economy,” Blackburn said in a statement this past weekend.

Shippers and big box retailers are hoping freight operations return to maximum capacity as quickly as possible.

Several key sectors were severely hamstrung during the two-week strike, including forestry and containerization on the West Coast, grain in the Prairies, mining and Ford-related auto shipments in Ontario, and other bulk commodities across the nation were affected.

— with files from Canadian Press