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Local Canadian Pacific Railway workers picket in front of the CP Rail offices on Pacific Avenue on Wednesday morning. CP Rail workers went on strike early Wednesday morning after last-minute negotiations before the midnight deadline failed. The union and CP Rail are continuing talks today.
More than 120 Canadian Pacific Railway conductors and engineers are on the picket line in Brandon.
The local workers are part of a nationwide strike, which includes some 4,800 employees represented by the Teamsters Canada union.
The strike began at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
Ed Holleman, strike captain and local chairman for the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said the biggest issue is their pension.
"We’ve paid them X amount of dollars into this pension, like myself for over 30 years, with a promise of a certain pension," said Holleman, a 32-year CP Rail employee.
"Now they want to roll it back so they got a comparable pension with Canadian National Railway, which is their competitor, but the CNR employees have not paid near as much into the pension as we have."
Canadian Pacific suspended rail freight service across the country but commuter trains in several large cities that use CP track continue to operate.
Holleman and about 120 other Brandon-based rail workers are picketing outside of the CP Rail office on Pacific Avenue.
Other issues are post-retirement health care benefits and work hours.
"We work 24-7, so we’re used to that, but they want to increase some runs where we have to go 12 hours without a break," Holleman said. "The big thing also is time off to recover from work fatigue, because we are called all hours of the day, every day of the week."
Holleman said he hopes Canadian Pacific and the union come to a "quick resolution."
"We’d all like to get back to work," he said.
On Wednesday, CP Rail announced it had taken another 2,000 of its employees off the job.
Spokesman Ed Greenberg said the other unionized workers’ services aren’t needed during the work stoppage, so they’re being temporarily laid off. He says the company expects that number to grow by another 1,400.
Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said she’s urging both sides to keep talking, but that she wants to be able to introduce back-to-work legislation on Monday if a deal isn’t reached.
"We want to create the atmosphere where they can do a deal on their own," she told reporters in Ottawa.
"But they have to be aware of the fact that the Canadian government will step in on the basis of the national economy and the greater public interest at some point."
A prolonged strike would cost the Canadian economy an estimated $540 million a week, Raitt said, calling that figure "conservative."
Tens of thousands of carloads a day of grain, coal, cars, lumber and other products aren’t moving because of the walkout, Greenberg said.
"This will have dramatic impacts on our customers’ business and Canada’s economy," he said.
"If the Teamsters stay on strike for any length of time, we are told that significant collateral impact will occur to our customers with plant shutdowns or operational curtailment. This will take the economic impact and job loss far beyond the minister’s estimates."
» jaustin@brandonsun.com, with files from The Canadian Press
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition May 24, 2012
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More than 120 Canadian Pacific Railway conductors and engineers are on the picket line in Brandon.
The local workers are part of a nationwide strike, which includes some 4,800 employees represented by the Teamsters Canada union.
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More than 120 Canadian Pacific Railway conductors and engineers are on the picket line in Brandon.
The local workers are part of a nationwide strike, which includes some 4,800 employees represented by the Teamsters Canada union.
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