(Adds details about contract)
MONTREAL, June 6 (Reuters) – Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd conductors and locomotive engineers will get a 9 percent salary hike over four years as part of a tentative agreement reached last week with the Teamsters, a union spokesman said on Wednesday.
The agreement, which must first be ratified by members to go into effect this year, would give the 3,000 workers an increase of 2 percent for the first three years and 3 percent during the last year, Teamsters Canada spokesman Chris Monette told Reuters by phone.
The collective agreement replaces the workers’ last contract which expired at the end of 2017.
Calgary-based CP could not be immediately reached for comment about the new contract details revealed on Wednesday.
Canada’s second-largest railroad operator reached the tentative agreement with the union on May 30, ending a strike that threw industries dependent on its transportation services into disarray.
The strike came at a time of tight rail capacity in Canada, with CP and rival Canadian National Railway facing strong demand for shipments of grain, potash and other commodities. The company, which employs 12,500 workers, is a leading shipper of grain, crude oil and frac sand in North America.
CP workers had been asking for more predictable schedules to combat crew fatigue in an industry where workers are largely on-call.
Monette said workers will now “have improved scheduling” because they will be able to book three 48 hours periods off a month, where they will not be on call, up from two right now.
Monette said the union has not yet “finalized the timeline” for when the ratification vote will take place. (Reporting By Allison Lampert Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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