Canadian Railroads Reach Accords With Labor Unions

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anada’s two largest freight railroads said they had reached agreements with labor unions representing their workers.

Canadian National Railway, the country’s largest, said it reached a four-year agreement with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers late Friday.

Details of the agreement, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2004, were being withheld pending general IBEW ratification, CN said, but in general it improves salaries and benefits.

Meanwhile Canadian Pacific Railway, which operates in western Canada, announced ratification of a three-year labor agreement with the 2,600 employees who repair and service CP’s locomotives and freight cars.

The agreement provides for wage, pension and benefits improvements, and work-rule changes that CP said would generate increased productivity. The wage increases are 3% in each year of the agreement.

The agreement was reached with CAW-TCA — the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada — Canada’s largest union.

CP’s 4,500 train crew employees ratified a four-year collective agreement in January and the railroad’s 2,500 track maintenance employees approved a three-year deal earlier this month.