Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. (NYSE: CP) maintenance workers have walked off the job in pursuit of a 13% wage increase over the next three years. This is the second strike this year against one of Canada's national railways and it affects approximately 3,000 rail workers. The previous strike in February involved engineers and yard workers. That dispute is currently in the hands of mediators.
Teamsters union leader William Brehl, indicated that for most of the workers involved in the current walkout, wages are the central issue. Union members are demanding a three year, 13% total wage increase, but the company has refused to agree to an increase of more than 10%. The deadlock indicates little promise for early resolution. The company has stated that the vacated work positions shall be immediately staffed with cross trained management personnel and it anticipates little effect to business operations.
At least one Canadian economist has indicated that this knot in Canadian logistics has the potential to push some would be Canadian rail traffic southward into the U.S. Jayson Myers, chief economist with the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, told CBC News, "We can't afford to see continuing series of strikes in our transportation sector, and then pretend that we have an efficiently working logistics system here in Canada."
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2007 @ 1:02PM
William Ehlert said...
This might not help the strike but
Canada could put power lines above
their rail road tracts to harness
the energy of their trains too. If
they built a system to collect this
power going to waste today, they
could use it to power their trains
as well with electric energy. This
would help Canadians have more good
paying jobs and the energy they
could get from the tide running into
and out of the areas behind all the
islands on the west coast would be
immense to say the least.
An extremely huge power supply
for their Nation and if trains were
to run on electricity the price of
oil, diesel and gas would go way
down.
Not to mention adding generators
to the rail cars empowered by an
onboard computer to lower wheels
which tuck up under the rail cars
and come down to power the
generators. Using these to help
stop trains gives the trains added
traction and could help prevent
some major accidents with the
train being able to stop sooner.