CN & Unifor Negotiations Update

Please read the following update regarding the CN and Unifor negotiations made on March 9.  

CN Update on Unifor Negotiations 

Source: CIFFA  

CN yesterday provided a status update related to its collective bargaining with Unifor, the union that represents approximately 3,000 employees in Canada. It said the following. 

• Discussions between CN and Unifor have been ongoing since October 2022 and the union filed for conciliation in December. CN presented a monetary proposal including wages and benefits to the union on February 14 and said it has received no response to the offer from the union. 

• Labour action could occur as early as March 21. Earlier this week, Unifor indicated that it has received support for a strike mandate from members. As a result, CN began to take action to mitigate the impact of a potential disruption.  

• CN will leverage management employees to maintain activities and does not expect labour action to impact carload operations or CNTL trucking services. It expects to begin ramping down some parts of intermodal operations as of March 14. 

• In the event of a Unifor strike, CN will maintain intermodal services to all ports in Canada as well as inland terminals in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax. All terminals in the United States will remain open. 

• For containers destined to Prince George, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg and Moncton, final cutoffs will be dependent on the container’s origin and destination, and the cutoff may start as early as March 14.   

• CN remains committed to doing everything necessary to reach an agreement with Unifor that balances the interests of employees, the company and its stakeholders, avoids any labour action and protects the supply chain.

Delmar International is closely monitoring the situation and will provide further updates as they become available. We expect some minor delays.  

 

For additional information, please contact your local Delmar Representative or visit our website.