3 June 2007
CP Rail, Union Officials Meet with Federal Mediators at Minister's Invitation
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A teamsters Union member holds up traffic in and out of the
Saskatoon Intermobal Terminal on 107th St E. first thing Wednesday morning as striking workers set up picket lines against CP
Rail.
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Officials from Canadian Pacific Railway and the Teamsters union
are meeting with with federal mediators in Ottawa.
Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn told the Canadian Press in a phone interview from Ottawa that he invited the
parties to the Sunday meeting.
More than 1,200 Canadian Pacific Railway maintenance workers walked off the job 16 May 2007.
Shippers have voiced concerns a prolonged strike could derail their businesses.
CP Rail has said the dispute is not disrupting its tightly scheduled freight runs despite pickets delaying trucks at sites in Vancouver
and Toronto.
The mediators had been talking with the two sides but Blackburn did not initially want to intefere with the situation.
He said the union had a right to strike udner the Canada Labour Code.
CP Rail and the Teamsters reached a stalemate in May after months of contract negotiations.
The union, which represents 3,200 maintenance workers, asked for a 13 percent pay raise over four years against CP Rail's offer of
10 percent over the same period.
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