18 May 2007
Sudbury Workers Join Strike; CP Maintenance Workers Walk Off the Job
Picketing Canadian Pacific track maintenance worker Pat Paquet
watches as supporters honk their horns in support as they pass by the Douglas Street picket line on Wednesday
evening.
Sudbury Ontario - Sudbury-based maintenance
workers for Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. walked off the job early Wednesday after a strike deadline passed without an agreement.
The strike affects nearly 80 workers in the area, who set up picket lines after a strike deadline passed without the Teamsters Canada
Rail Conference reaching an agreement with CP Rail.
"It's baloney, man," said Pat Paquet, a foreman with CP Rail in Sudbury. "I mean, I think they could have reached a
deal. We're just nit-picking on one, two percent and the company wants to take stuff away from our benefit package. We're
not asking for much."
Paquet said it's more about keeping up with the average wage increases and holding on to the benefits union members already have.
"We're not asking for millions, we're just asking for a fair deal," he said. "You know, just keep up, don't take
away."
CP has dispatched 1,300 management employees to replace the striking workers, but Paquet said only a handful of them are qualified to
do the job.
"The only ones doing our work now is our managers and our secretaries," he said. "So now we got 6,000 kilometres of
track and CP is claiming that there's 1,200 qualified people. There might be about 150 qualified people and the rest are secretaries
who usually get the coffee in the morning.
"She's the one swinging the hammer now... It's not the right, qualified people fixing that track, man."
Despite the strike, train traffic across Canada stayed on track after 3,200 Canadian Pacific Railway maintenance workers walked off the
job, the company said, but shippers voiced concerns a prolonged strike could derail their businesses.
CP Rail said the strike was not disrupting its tightly scheduled freight runs despite picketers delaying trucks coming on sites in
Vancouver and Toronto.
"By slowing traffic by 10 minutes, it's not going to impact train service," CP Rail spokesman Mark Seland said.
Delivery of intermodal containers represented 28 percent, $311.6 million, of CP Rail's freight revenues during the first quarter.
The company, Canada's second largest railway, said there were no further talks scheduled with the Teamsters'
Maintenance-of-Way division.
Meantime, shippers raised concerns about the impact a second railway strike in four months would have on their bottom line.
"We could probably go for a few days, if there were service delays and disruptions," Maureen Fitzhenry, with the Canadian
Wheat Board said. "But when we start getting into a week or more, that's when things start getting unsustainable."
CP Rail has contracts to move more than two million tonnes of wheat, barley and other grains from the three prairie provinces before
the end of the crop year 31 Jul 2007, she said.
The board lobbied for government intervention in April when Canadian National Railway conductors and yard workers resumed a strike that
had lasted two weeks in February.
Union workers staged rotating walkouts in April after rejecting a proposed one-year contract. Within days Ottawa imposed
back-to-work legislation, saying continued work action could impact the country's economy.
Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said the government would not be getting involved in the CP dispute at this
stage.
"Right now, our mediator is talking separately with the parties," Blackburn told reporters in Ottawa. "But the parties
will have to get to the point to sit at the same table to find a solution."
The 15-day CN strike in February caused bottlenecks at major ports on both coasts, and backlogs of product shippers
continue to grapple with.
Another work stoppage could harm Canada's reputation as a reliable source of goods, transport export Bill Waters said, from Vancouver.
"These things always ultimately have a net cost," Waters said.
While industry complained about backlogs due to the CN Rail strike, economists were surprised at the relatively small impact it had on
the overall economy.
Avery Shenfeld of CIBC World Markets said a short strike at CP Rail probably would have the same minimal effect.
But he said "if we start to hit deadlines for getting the goods moving again, we would look for Ottawa to step in and bring an end
to the strike."
CP Rail and the Teamsters reached a stalemate last week after months of contract negotiations fell off the table.
The union asked for a 13 percent pay raise over four years against CP Rail's offer of 10 percent over the same period.
While a short strike may have minimal financial impact, there are concerns safety of the railway network could be compromised if work
stoppages were prolonged.
Federal Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said the ministry has been in close contact with the railway to ensure safety concerns are
dealt with promptly.
"Of course it falls under the purview of my colleague the minister of labour, but from the safety perspective, we'll be watching
this very closely," he said in Ottawa.
CP said it had been training management to take over maintenance-of-way duties prior to the walk out.
Fording Canadian Coal Trust, which ships the bulk of its coal on CP Rail, would not speculate on the impact of a prolonged strike,
saying the company is monitoring the situation closely.
"Canadian Pacific Railway has assured us that it will work to minimize the impact on its ability to transport our product to the
west coast ports," spokeswoman Catherine Hart said.
"We believe this is acceptable."
Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan, one of the world's largest fertilizer enterprises by capacity, ships, also has been reassured by the
railway shipments will be maintained during the strike, spokeswoman Rhonda Spiess said.
The company shipped about half of its seven million tonne-production of potassium chloride on CP Rail last year, she said.
"Rail service is important to us as most of our product deliveries do require rail movement," Spiess said.
Sulpher and fertilizer shipments represent the third largest commodity group shipped by CP Rail, after grain and
coal.
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