IAM Union (International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers) District 19, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division (BMWED), and Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen (BRS) on Feb. 12 reported that they have “invoked federal mediation after more than a year of stalled contract talks with Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).”
According to the three unions, they have been bargaining as a coalition since February 2025 under 19 collective bargaining agreements with CPKC, which was created in 2023 through the merger of Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern (KCS), forming the first single-line, transnational railway connecting Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. “While the parties are in accord on wage increases consistent with agreements with the other Class I railroads and have agreed to nationally negotiated health care changes, significant issues remain unresolved,” they said. “CPKC’s DM&E [Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern] employees remain excluded from the railroad industry’s National Health and Welfare Plan and earn about 10% less than [CPKC-subsidiary] Soo Line workers and more than 12% less than nearby Kansas City Southern employees, despite performing the same work. They are the only U.S. craft employees at any Class I railroad without coverage under the national plan or an equivalent plan. Additionally, CPKC’s proposed sick leave agreement is more restrictive and conditioned than the sick leave agreements the unions have with the other Class I railroads, and CPKC’s Delaware and Hudson employees are also underpaid.”
The three unions reported that when Canadian Pacific reacquired the DM&E, whose lines run primarily through Iowa and Missouri, and later merged with KCS, “executives promised DM&E employees their wages would be brought up to Soo Line rates,” but noted that “those commitments have not been honored.”
Because talks have stalled, the unions said, they have requested mediation services from the National Mediation Board under the Railway Labor Act.
“We are prepared to work through the Railway Labor Act process,” the unions said. “But fairness for DM&E employees is not optional; respect and dignity are long overdue.”
In a Feb. 13 statement to Railway Age, CPKC said: “In recent months, CPKC has reached and seen ratified 17 new collective bargaining agreements (with two other tentative agreements reached and pending ratification) covering hundreds of employees working in 11 states across the CPKC network in the United States. We will continue to pursue agreements through direct engagement with IAM District 19, BRS and BMWED, with the assistance of mediators from the National Mediation Board. CPKC remains committed to bargaining in good faith with all our union partners.”
