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