United Steelworkers (USW) has negotiated a collective agreement with CN Rail.

The USW Local 2004 represents 3,000 CN Rail maintenance workers across Canada.

Following very difficult and challenging negotiations over the last several weeks, we have reached a tentative agreement on a four-year contract, said USW Local 2004 President Randy Koch.

This agreement includes improvements on key issues affecting the working and living standards of our members, Koch said.

USW Local 2004 represents 3,000 CN employees who inspect, maintain and repair the railways track, bridges and infrastructure across Canada.

The workers existing collective agreement expires Dec. 31. Details of the new tentative agreement will not be released publicly until unio members have been able to review the contract and hold a ratification vote.

Jim Vena, CN executive vice-president and chief operating officer, said: We are pleased to have reached a new four year agreement with the Steelworkers before the current contract expires at months end.  The discussions reflected a desire to address issues of mutual concern and generated solutions for both sides.

The review and ratification process is expected to take several weeks to complete, given that unio members live and work in communities in every region of the country.

SOURCE United Steelworkers (USW) and CN Rail