OREANDA-NEWS. CN (TSX: CNR) (NYSE: CNI) said today the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference - Conductors, Trainpersons and Yardpersons (TCRC-CTY) has accepted CN's offer to enter labour negotiations for a contract settlement on the condition that final and binding arbitration will apply if the parties cannot reach agreement.

The TCRC-CTY represents approximately 3,000 CN train conductors, trainpersons, yardpersons and traffic coordinators on CN's network in Canada.

Claude Mongeau, CN president and chief executive officer, said: “I am very pleased that the Teamsters have accepted our offer to negotiate a settlement and, failing such, to submit our differences to binding arbitration. We will meet the union next week to re-engage the discussion.

“With a process assuring contractual certainty, CN and the Teamsters can continue working on the company's recovery from an extraordinarily cold winter that hampered operations, and help our valued customers across Canada get their goods to market.”