Recently, Bryon DeBaets and Rick Johnston met with me individually to discuss
the relationship between CN and the CAW. Since our strike, I think we all
have wondered how long it would take to heal the wounds experienced on both
sides. Our striking employees and the company lost money, but we also feared
we had lost the momentum CN and the CAW were trying to build to make our
company even better.
After our January 23rd agreement failed ratification, I told the CAW
leadership my concerns about the effects of a strike not only on our
relationship, but employees and our business. CN lost $35 million in revenue,
which has made us very conscious of the dollars we are spending on such things
as overtime payments. Also, it was always my belief that a strike would make
us rethink the way we are performing our work. As I told the CAW bargaining
team on more than one occasion, asking our managers and information technology
experts to do the work of the CAW employees opened the door for those
professionals to explore new, more efficient ways of running our business.
And, after the conclusion of the strike, our management employees informed us
of many initiatives we could pursue which would make it easier and faster to
do our jobs. That efficiency, however, could well result in job reductions.
During CN’s April 22 conference call regarding our Q1 results, I was asked by
a stock analyst whether there would be job reductions as a result of the
strike. I responded that due to the efficiencies we discovered, we could cut
anywhere from 500-1200 jobs in the next 18 months. However, we will discuss
this matter with the CAW, as it is my hope that we can find new ways of
working that uses the best skills of our employees. To clarify, the decisions
we make about our CAW workforce will be based on whether we can work together
as a group to make CN the best transportation serv