CN Rail locomotives are moved on tracks past cargo containers sitting on idle train cars at port in Vancouver, on Friday, February 21, 2020.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Workers in signals and communications have gone on strike at Canadian National Railway Co. in a development that threatens to exacerbate transport bottlenecks across the country in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some 750 members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Canada walked off the job Saturday after failing to agree to a new labour contract with the railway, union negotiator Steve Martin said in an interview Sunday afternoon. CN later confirmed the walkout.
The two sides are not meeting in person but continue to talk and exchange contract proposals, Mr. Martin said. CN said in a statement Monday that normal operations continue safely and that it has implemented a contingency plan allowing the railway to maintain normal operations and serve customers “for as long as required.”
A lasting strike could deliver yet another hit to supply chains in Canada and drive up prices for goods, which have already been affected by the pandemic. Last year in British Columbia, mudslides and flooding severed all major highways between the Lower Mainland and the Interior, as well as freight routes used by Canadian National and rival Canadian Pacific.
There is no impact to operations currently and there is none expected, CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said.
The union challenged that view, saying fallout is unavoidable if the work stoppage continues. “The impact to operations is highly likely,” Mr. Martin said. That’s because a large percentage of workers are on-call employees responding to troubleshooting situations like the aftermath of thunderstorms, he explained. Others do preventative maintenance.
The striking workers repair and maintain CN’s trackside electrical and signalling equipment, such as crossings, track signals and switches. This equipment dictates the potential speed of trains, much in the same way traffic lights dictate the speed of motor vehicles on the road, Mr. Martin said.
CN intends to use managers and contract workers to do the work as needed, Mr. Abecassis said. It was unclear how this would be possible in Quebec, which has stringent laws against using non-management replacement workers in a labour-conflict situation.
Mr. Abecassis said CN’s contingency plan complies with applicable laws.
The union last week gave the company a 72-hour notice of its intention to strike. The company has offered to resolve the remaining differences with the union, chiefly on wages and benefits, through binding arbitration.
On Monday morning, CN released a letter written by Rob Reilly, its chief operating officer, to the striking employees. In it, Mr. Reilly says the company is disappointed that the union rejected the company’s latest offer and he spells out the details of that offer.
According to the letter, it includes a 10 per cent increase in wages over three years as well as more paramedical benefit and mental health support.
“We have met or exceeded every one of the union’s demands in an effort to reach an agreement,” Mr. Reilly says in the letter. “I sincerely hope we can come to a resolution as soon as possible.”
One major issue being contested concerns what’s called “out-of-region work,” Mr. Martin said. The company wants to be able to move workers out of their home region for a specific number of days at time, Mr. Martin said. The same issue came up during the previous contract negotiations, which yielded a five-year collective agreement that expired at the end of 2021.
The last major strike at CN was in November 2019 when some 3,000 conductors, trainpersons and yard workers represented by Teamsters Canada walked off the job for eight days. The stoppage froze shipments and hit various sectors across the country.
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CALGARY – TC Energy Corp. has lowered the estimated cost of its Southeast Gateway pipeline project in Mexico.
It says it now expects the project to cost between US$3.9 billion and US$4.1 billion compared with its original estimate of US$4.5 billion.
The change came as the company reported a third-quarter profit attributable to common shareholders of C$1.46 billion or $1.40 per share compared with a loss of C$197 million or 19 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 totalled C$4.08 billion, up from C$3.94 billion in the third quarter of 2023.
TC Energy says its comparable earnings for its latest quarter amounted to C$1.03 per share compared with C$1.00 per share a year earlier.
The average analyst estimate had been for a profit of 95 cents per share, according to LSEG Data & Analytics.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
BCE Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter as it recorded $2.11 billion in asset impairment charges, mainly related to Bell Media’s TV and radio properties.
The company says its net loss attributable to common shareholders amounted to $1.24 billion or $1.36 per share for the quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with a profit of $640 million or 70 cents per share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, BCE says it earned 75 cents per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 81 cents per share in the same quarter last year.
“Bell’s results for the third quarter demonstrate that we are disciplined in our pursuit of profitable growth in an intensely competitive environment,” BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic said in a statement.
“Our focus this quarter, and throughout 2024, has been to attract higher-margin subscribers and reduce costs to help offset short-term revenue impacts from sustained competitive pricing pressures, slow economic growth and a media advertising market that is in transition.”
Operating revenue for the quarter totalled $5.97 billion, down from $6.08 billion in its third quarter of 2023.
BCE also said it now expects its revenue for 2024 to fall about 1.5 per cent compared with earlier guidance for an increase of zero to four per cent.
The company says the change comes as it faces lower-than-anticipated wireless product revenue and sustained pressure on wireless prices.
BCE added 33,111 net postpaid mobile phone subscribers, down 76.8 per cent from the same period last year, which was the company’s second-best performance on the metric since 2010.
It says the drop was driven by higher customer churn — a measure of subscribers who cancelled their service — amid greater competitive activity and promotional offer intensity. BCE’s monthly churn rate for the category was 1.28 per cent, up from 1.1 per cent during its previous third quarter.
The company also saw 11.6 per cent fewer gross subscriber activations “due to more targeted promotional offers and mobile device discounting compared to last year.”
Bell’s wireless mobile phone average revenue per user was $58.26, down 3.4 per cent from $60.28 in the third quarter of the prior year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. trimmed its financial guidance as it reported its second-quarter revenue fell compared with a year ago.
The luxury clothing company says revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 29 totalled $267.8 million, down from $281.1 million in the same quarter last year.
Net income attributable to shareholders amounted to $5.4 million or six cents per diluted share, up from $3.9 million or four cents per diluted share a year earlier.
On an adjusted basis, Canada Goose says it earned five cents per diluted share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of 16 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
In its outlook, Canada Goose says it now expects total revenue for its full financial year to show a low-single-digit percentage decrease to low-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a low-single-digit increase.
It also says it now expects its adjusted net income per diluted share to show a mid-single-digit percentage increase compared with earlier guidance for a percentage increase in the mid-teens.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
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