Watch above: Train engineers and conductors in Division 793 are walking the picket line after failed contract talks with Canadian Pacific Railway. Amber Rockliffe talks with picketers in Saskatoon who say the strike is a last resort to back contract demands.
SASKATOON – Train engineers and conductors in Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) Division 793 are walking the picket line after failed contract talks with Canadian Pacific Railway.
“Our contract was up Dec. 31, 2014, and since then, we’ve been negotiating with the company and we haven’t been able to come to an agreement,” explained the division’s strike captain Doug Fast in Saskatoon on Sunday.
“We have mediators in and we’re exercising our legal right to strike,” he said.
“I’ve been here since 1978, and we’ve had three strikes … so we’re not habitual strikers, this is just a last step – it’s a step we don’t like to take, but it’s a step that was necessary,” Fast explained.
READ MORE: Thousands strike at Canadian Pacific Railway after negotiations fail
In a statement released Sunday, TCRC President Douglas Finnson called CP’s concessionary demands “severe.” He said CP’s final offer “amounted to much the same thing as the hourly agreement this same management team tried to impose on our brothers and sisters at Canadian National in 2007,” which also resulted in a strike.
More than 500 teamsters are on strike in Saskatchewan, with the majority located in Moose Jaw. Over 100 members are picketing in Saskatoon.
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Fast was unable to disclose the details of the negotiations, but said it was ultimately about work life balance.
“The engineers and conductors, we spend a lot of time on the road, and we’re on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and it can be very fatiguing,” Fast said.
In a statement released Saturday, CP claims it has presented the union with “dynamic options” to improve employees’ quality of life. The company’s chief executive officer Hunter Harrison said conductors and engineers aren’t taking full advantage of their options for time off.
The company said it will deploy management personnel to operate a reduced freight service.
The federal government said it may introduce legislation in Parliament Monday to end the work stoppage.
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