At our meetings this week with CP management, the company responded to our bargaining objectives document with what they call a “comprehensive response”. We talked about the response and are hopeful that we have made some progress in bringing some greater focus to some of the issues we’ve identified, such as performance management and the dispute resolution process.

We got some more detail about the company’s proposed changes to the pension plan as well as the pension payback scheme. We have undertaken to study the proposal carefully, and plan to come back with further questions and some suggestions of our own on how to move forward.

It’s clear that there is a gap between our respective positions. Our challenge in the coming days will be to find ways to close that gap to reach an agreement that Guild members, as well as company management, will find satisfactory.

We will be meeting with the company again next week. Stay tuned for further developments.

Your bargaining committee:

Riaz Ladha
Michel Lamarche
Terry Pedwell, President, CP branch
(special guest appearance by Craig Wong)
Keith Maskell, CMG staff representative