CN Rail Union Must Accept Company Offer, Arbiter Says (not the Via Rail agreement)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=anxXsH7gOQqw&refer=canada

By Hugo Miller and Sonja Franklin

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian National Railway Co.'s 2,800 conductors and yard workers must accept the company's contract offer and end a labor dispute with the country's largest railroad, an arbitrator ruled.

Arbitrator Andrew Sims backed the carrier's proposal for a three-year accord starting July 23 with wage increases of 3 percent in each year, Labor Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said today in a statement.

``CN is gratified that the arbitrator's decision was CN's final offer,'' railroad spokesman Mark Hallman said in an interview. ``The offer is totally consistent with what the company had been talking about earlier with the union.''

The Canadian government set a 90-day deadline on April 23 for Sims to review proposals from the Montreal-based carrier and the United Transportation Union. The arbitrator's task was to pick one offer as a binding agreement.

Tim Secord, a spokesman for the UTU, didn't immediately return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment.

Union members rejected a proposed one-year labor contract in April, prompting a renewal of work stoppages after a February strike that cost CN C$60 million ($57 million). The tentative accord didn't address ``harassment'' by management to boost productivity, the union said.