CN Rail headed for Monday lockout after union rejects binding arbitration
Posted Feb 21, 2015 08:50:13 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
MONTREAL – C-N Rail is threatening to lock out nearly five-thousand workers.
The Montreal-based railway says the lockout will begin at 11 p.m. Monday unless the union agrees to binding arbitration to settle contract differences.
Unifor, which represents the 48-hundred workers, quickly rejected the company’s ultimatum.
Unifor president Jerry Dias says C-N appears to be looking for a fight.
But Dias says union negotiators are still prepared to bargain through the weekend to try to get a deal.
C-N chief executive Claude Mongeau says the two sides won’t get any closer to a deal amid a month-long strike mandate process.
The railway wants Unifor to focus on terms of a collective agreement that applies to its employees, rather than match terms of its recent settlement with Canadian Pacific.
