About 300 employees went on strike on May 31
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) will continue to service its customers despite an ongoing strike.
The railway “has implemented contingency plans to maintain railway operations across Canada…,” the company said in a May 31 statement.
About 300 signals and communications employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) went on strike on May 31 after the union rejected the railway’s latest contract offer.
These workers are responsible for installing, maintaining, and repairing signal and communication equipment.
The union issued the strike notice to CPKC on May 27 with 96 per cent support from the workers.
“The bargaining committee did not take this step lightly,” Senior General Chairman Jason Sommer said in an IBEW statement.
The two sides began negotiations in September 2024.
The IBEW’s concerns include wages, external employee expenses, and better work-life balance, adding that employees are leaving CPKC for other opportunities in the railway industry.
CPKC, however, felt some of IBEW’s demands were unreasonable.
Especially on wages.
“On wages, the union has sought wage and benefit increases that are double the wage and benefit hikes received by our other Canadian collective bargaining units, a position that is unfair to other CPKC employees and unreasonable to CPKC,” the railway said in a bargaining update. “We are not prepared to entertain creating a disparity like this.”
The CPKC line accesses 235 grain elevators across Canada.