Local CP Rail workers grimly walk the picket line
Posted May 23, 2012 1:54 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CP Rail workers in Calgary joined their union colleagues across the country this morning in hitting the picket line.
Members of the Teamsters union, about 4,500 CP employees — including engineers and conductors — went on strike at 12:01 a.m., Wednesday.
One CP Rail worker here in Calgary says there is one very important issue that remains unresolved in negotiations.
“Mainly protecting our pensions,” she tells 660News. “With some members, it’ll be cut by at least 40 per cent.”
Co-worker Cari Essery is a bit more emotional in her assessment of the labour dispute.
“A lot of it is frustrating,” Essery tells 660News. “I know I am. Nobody wants to be out here, you know, we’d all love to be back there running trains. But you know, like I say, we have to protect our members.”
But Darryl Sundholm doesn’t expect that he and his fellow union members will be walking the picket line very long.
“If this goes on for more than five days, I’m certain of it that we’ll be legislated back,” Sundholm tells 660News. “The company has no contingency plans for this. We barely had a contingency plan. We have a standard plan that’s in place for strikes, but we did not think that we were going to go.”
Shortly after the strike began, federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt indicated the federal government would be tabling back to work legislation as early as next Monday. Making the same claim as it did in labour disputes between Air Canada and its employees, the Harper Government is claiming the rail freight strike will adversely affect the Canadian economy.
The collective bargaining agreement between the two sides expired December 31, 2011.
