North America - An arbitrator's ruling has halted Canadian Pacific Railway's (CP) use of U.S. crews to operate trains that cross the border into Canada.
 
The ruling, which followed a grievance filed by the Teamsters union that represents the company's train operators in Canada, called the company's practice "destructive" to relations between the two sides and contrary to the collective agreement.
 
"The company is violating the union's exclusive bargaining rights and has improperly assigned work to employees who are not members of the bargaining unit represented by the union," said John Stout, the arbitrator who issued the 24 page judgment on Wednesday after two days of hearings.
 
A CP spokesman said the company is reviewing the decision and could not comment.
 
The dispute began in 2013, when CP told the union that represents its Canadian train crews, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), it wanted engineers and conductors to begin running trains between Winnipeg and Thief River Falls, Minnesota, a 230 kilometre route that would require a longer, 12 hour shift.
 
Historically, the Canadian crews stopped just over the U.S. border in Noyes, Minnesota, and handed the trains to U.S. crews, a practice CP told the arbitrator was inefficient and slow.
 
The direct service with the same crew was a better use of equipment, and provided better service to customers, the company said.
 
After the Teamsters refused to discuss the change, CP began using U.S. employees of its Soo Line division to work between the two cities in June, 2014.
 
"They just phoned up our guys one day and said, either you do it or we're giving it to the Americans," said Doug Finnson, president of TCRC, which represents about 3,500 locomotive engineers and conductors.
 
"They wanted to change the collective agreement to have our guys work 12 hours without rest and we said no, you can't just change the collective agreement because you want to."
 
The company told the arbitrator the union did not have the exclusive right to do the job, and that the Soo Line is permitted to operate in Canada with its own employees.
 
But the arbitrator likened the move to a "contracting in situation where an employer brings in non-bargaining unit personnel to work alongside bargaining unit employees."
 
"The company cannot ignore the rights and the commitments found in the collective agreements and just assign work in Canada that has been previously exclusively performed by Canadian crews represented by the union, to American crews working for their subsidiary Soo Line," Mr. Stout wrote.
 
Mr. Finnson said about 15 employees were affected, and "a few" freight trains make the trip each day.
 
The Soo Line train operators are members of Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) and the United Transportation Union (UTU).
 
The arbitrator also ruled the 12 hour shift was not allowed under the collective agreement.
 
However, a ruling by another arbitrator issued this week granted the company the right to require train crews work for 12 hours on certain routes.
 
That arbitrator was appointed by the federal government to impose a settlement on the two sides after they failed to agree on a new contract last winter.
 
The dispute led to a two-day strike by CP crews in February.
 
The three-year contract includes better pay and benefits.
 
CP said it was happy with the deal, but it lost its bid to have more control over crew scheduling and rest periods to better meet the demands of scheduled train service.
 
Eric Atkins.