MONTREAL, March 21, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) said
today it is offering the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference -
Conductors, Trainpersons and Yardpersons (TCRC-CTY) one last
opportunity to reach a contract settlement through negotiation on the
condition the union agrees upfront to binding arbitration if the talks
fail.
The TCRC-CTY represents approximately 3,000 CN train conductors,
trainpersons, yardpersons and traffic coordinators on CN's network in
Canada.
Senior CN officers are prepared to meet immediately with the union's
bargaining committee, enlisting the assistance of federal mediators if
necessary, to break the impasse with the TCRC-CTY. Unfortunately, the
union has yet to accept the Company's March 20 offer of binding
arbitration to settle outstanding contractual issues.
Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive officer, said: "CN's
extensive, good-faith bargaining with the TCRC-CTY throughout the fall
of 2013 produced a progressive agreement to address the union's
concerns about work-life balance and help the Company improve service
and efficiency.
"After that agreement failed to ratify in January 2014, CN resumed
negotiations with the union and secured a second tentative agreement
against the backdrop of a union strike notice. This second tentative
agreement narrowly failed ratification this week by a margin of less
than 40 votes.
"CN is willing to go back to the bargaining table with TCRC-CTY one last
time to achieve a fair settlement. But we can only do that if the union
commits upfront to binding arbitration in the event our negotiations
fail. In the current circumstances, we must move forward with an
approach that will provide certainty of outcome for our employees,
customers and other stakeholders."
CN is asking the TCRC-CTY to respond to its final bargaining offer by
tomorrow, March 22, at the latest.
Mongeau said: "CN sincerely hopes the union leadership will see the
value of CN's efforts to negotiate a fair settlement. Job number one
for all of us is to continue our recovery from an extraordinarily cold
winter that hampered operations, and to help our customers across
Canada get their goods to market."
CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) is a true backbone of the economy,
transporting approximately C$250 billion worth of goods annually for a
wide range of business sectors, ranging from resource products to
manufactured products to consumer goods, across a rail network spanning
Canada and mid-America. CN - Canadian National Railway Company, along
with its operating railway subsidiaries -- serves the cities and ports
of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and
Mobile, Ala., and the metropolitan areas of Toronto, Edmonton,
Winnipeg, Calgary, Chicago, Memphis, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior,
Wis., and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North
America. For more information on CN, visit the company's website at www.cn.ca.
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain information included in this news release is "forward-looking
statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and under Canadian securities laws. CN
cautions that, by their nature, these forward-looking statements
involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company cautions that
its assumptions may not materialize and that current economic
conditions render such assumptions, although reasonable at the time
they were made, subject to greater uncertainty. Such forward-looking
statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known
and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the
actual results or performance of the Company or the rail industry to be
materially different from the outlook or any future results or
performance implied by such statements.
Important risk factors that could affect the forward-looking statements
include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic and
business conditions, industry competition, inflation, currency and
interest rate fluctuations, changes in fuel prices, legislative and/or
regulatory developments, compliance with environmental laws and
regulations, actions by regulators, various events which could disrupt
operations, including natural events such as severe weather, droughts,
floods and earthquakes, labor negotiations and disruptions,
environmental claims, uncertainties of investigations, proceedings or
other types of claims and litigation, risks and liabilities arising
from derailments, and other risks detailed from time to time in reports
filed by CN with securities regulators in Canada and the United States.
Reference should be made to "Management's Discussion and Analysis" in
CN's annual and interim reports, Annual Information Form and Form 40-F
filed with Canadian and U.S. securities regulators, available on CN's
website, for a summary of major risks.
CN assumes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements
to reflect future events, changes in circumstances, or changes in
beliefs, unless required by applicable Canadian securities laws. In the
event CN does update any forward-looking statement, no inference should
be made that CN will make additional updates with respect to that
statement, related matters, or any other forward-looking statement.
SOURCE CN