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The Canadian Pacific Railway strike means more than 2,000non-striking unionized CP employees will be laid off, a spokesmanfor the company said Wednesday, as the federal labour minister saidshe may force an end to the work stoppage. "Unfortunately, with this unnecessary strike by the Teamsters, morethan 2,000 other unionized CP employees will not be required andare being laid off," CP's Ed Greenberg said. "We expect this togrow by another 1,400 employees as their work, related to theoperations of the railroad, is no longer required. This is inaddition to the 4,800 Teamster-represented employees currently onstrike." The strike by engineers and other workers began Wednesday morning.The layoffs are a temporary measure, with CP saying the affectedworkers are not required when the trains aren't running. Greenberg said the strike means tens of thousands of carloads a dayof grain, coal, automobiles and other products won't be movingalong nearly 24,000 kilometres of track in Canada and the U.S. Back-to-work legislation Earlier Wednesday, Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said she wasgiving notice of legislation to force the union back to work. Raitt urged both sides to keep negotiating but said she's beingprudent by putting the legislation on the order paper in the Houseof Commons. The announcement came 10 hours after the workers wenton strike. "We want to make sure that they're doing the best that they can,but they understand as well that if they cannot conclude theirdeal, we will have the ability to intervene," Raitt told reportersin Ottawa. "We want to make sure that the effect on the economy is beingbrought to people's attention and that we're keeping it in mind asit proceeds." Raitt says the parties are still at the table but said lateWednesday afternoon that they seem to be far apart on the issue ofpensions. She says the government estimates a strike could cost$540 million a week. Raitt's statement 'consistent' with union attitude The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) said in a statementlater Wednesday that Raitt didn't threaten them with back-to-worklegislation, and promised to stay at the negotiating table as longas it takes. "Minister Raitt's comment is consistent with our attitude since thebeginning of the negotiations," said Doug Finnson, TCRCvice-president. "The minister wants the parties to continue talking and that'sexactly what we're doing." The statement said Raitt "seemed inclined to give the parties timeto find common ground." "CP's management needs to understand that hiding behind the federalgovernment is not going to resolve things," Finnson said. Canadian Pacific's statement Wednesday evening said it respectedRaitt's announcement and that it is willing to enter bindingarbitration. On Power & Politics with Evan Solomon , Raitt said there are three options for management and the union: They negotiate a deal, which she said seems to be becoming moreunlikely. They voluntarily go to arbitration, with an arbitrator of theirchoosing. Both sides accept an offer Raitt says she made last week to stopthe strike and agree to 120 days further mediation with an expertprovided by Labour Canada. Canadian Pacific accepted that offer butthe Teamsters did not. "It's still there for them to take, and theyshould look at it," she said. If they don't do any of those things, "They are leaving theirdestiny in the hands of Parliament," Raitt said. The House of Commons isn't sitting this week, with MPs working intheir ridings, so the legislation isn't likely to start movingthrough Parliament until Monday. Asked whether Canadian Pacific asked for the legislation, Raittsaid no. Last year, the government brought in back-to-work legislation forboth Air Canada and Canada Post disputes in the case of CanadaPost, it ended a lockout. In June 2011, the NDP forced the House to sit continuously forthree days as the party fought the Canada Post legislation. 'The Conservatives are taking only one side' NDP labour critic Alexandre Boulerice said he's concerned thethreat of back-to-work legislation will skew the balance at thenegotiating table in favour of Canadian Pacific. "Once again the Conservatives are taking only one side and bythreatening the union and the workers with back-to-worklegislation, it removes a lot of pressure from the employer," saidthe Montreal MP. "It constitutes another attack against the rights of the workers toassociate and to freely negotiate." The workers went on strike early Wednesday morning afterlast-minute negotiations failed. Freight service was then suspendedacross the country. I am an expert from flexiblebluetoothkeyboard.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Horn Speaker for Iphone Manufacturer , China External Hard Drive Docking Station, Folding Bluetooth Keyboard Iphone,and more.
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