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Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.’s three-year contract offers to 3,360 train crews and signal workers include 2-per-cent annual salary and benefits increases and $1,000 for every member who drops their grievance.

Union members will vote on the offers, one of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, at a date that has not been announced by the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, which is administering the ballot at the request of federal Employment Minister Patty Hajdu.

Ms. Hajdu’s move halted negotiations on Friday night, hours before union members were set to go on strike after months of failed contract talks.

Leaders of both unions, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), on Wednesday reiterated their opposition to CP’s offer, setting the stage for a possible strike at Canada’s second-largest railway.

“There’s no change,” Steve Martin, general chairman of IBEW, said by phone.

Doug Finnson, president of TCRC, declined to discuss the issues in detail. He said he has no objection to the Employment Minister’s move to require the employees to vote on the company’s latest offer.

Rather, he said the union objects to clauses in the offer covering salary, benefits and pensions. In an interview, Mr. Finnson expressed frustration the company is not properly addressing the fatigue employees face. The union is seeking more rest or longer rest periods in a month, a health and safety issue for people who work around the clock and spend days away from home.

“Safety’s part of the issue,” Mr. Finnson said by phone from Calgary. “It’s your health, it’s your well-being, it’s your work life. We’re so far beyond arguing whether worker fatigue is a primary issue. We’re way beyond that.”

He said the company’s offer to pay $1,000 to every employee who dropped their grievance for non-disciplinary matters is “unusual” and amounted to “pennies on the dollar” compared with how much employees could be awarded by an arbitrator.

Ms. Hajdu, the Employment Minister, was not available for a phone interview on Wednesday.

A CP spokesman did not respond to questions.

”A work stoppage involving the TCRC and the IBEW will severely impact CP’s ability to continue to provide safe and efficient freight and passenger/commuter service,” CP said in a statement last week. “All customers and commodities would be impacted at a time when demand is soaring.”

One Teamsters member, who is not authorized to speak to the media, has seen the offer and said he is voting against it. He said the wage increase is too low and does not bring them to the pay level of his counterparts at Canadian National Railway Co., nor does it match the rate of inflation.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed CN train crews, also represented by the Teamsters, are paid more than their CP counterparts.

CP in 2017 reached agreements with three other unionized groups, using a “pattern framework” of similar contracts. In 2017, CP posted a profit of $2.4-billion, up by $1.5-billion since 2013. During the same period, revenues rose by $420,000 to $6.6-billion.

CP’s Teamsters train crews have gone on strike twice since 2012, the year new company leadership began a period of layoffs and restructuring that led to thousands of job losses and a sharp deterioration in labour relations.

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