MEMORANDUM OF SETTLEMENT

The CCROU (BLE/UTU) entered into a tentative agreement with CPR (including the St. Lawrence & Hudson) with a proposed settlement resolving the minimum day issue directed in the Adams’ Award.

Justice Adams directed H. Allan Hope to resolve the minimum day issue through a fact finding mediation/arbitation process with the Council and the Company. The basis was to look at the minimum day, similar to the American model. Justice Adams was reluctant to give the Company the 115 mile minimum day but could not accede to the Council’s request to maintain the status quo.

Within the minimum day process and the Hope mediation/arbitration process, the Council entered into negotiations with the Company to see if a new method of pay could be found which would satisfy the Company’s minimum day demand as well as the Council’s concerns for members’ wages and lifestyle.

This Memorandum of Settlement is a result of those negotiations. Unlike the American experience, we have the choice to define our futures. The railway and unions have met at a crossroad and now the path must be decided.

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What is the Minimum Day?

There are a lot of questions about exactly what the “Minimum Day” is and how it will affect running trades employees in Canada. In order to understand the minimum day, it is of value to review how the US running trades employees ended up with the current 130 mile minimum day.

1. The history of the minimum day dates back to the Report of the Presidential Railroad Commission (PRC) of February 1962. The Commission was implemented as a result of basic and even revolutionary changes which occurred in the rail industry over a 40-year period. The basic changes in the industry were:

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YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT

The next step is up to the membership to cast their ballot, either for the Memorandum of Settlement, or to accept the Hope arbitration on the minimum day.

What’s most important is that every member vote!!