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CN and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) signed a tentative contract covering 644 union members who maintain and repair CN's signals and communications systems across Canada.

As a result of the tentative agreement, there will be no labor disruption at midnight, Friday March 25.

Details of the four-year contract, retroactive to January 1, 2004, are being withheld pending ratification by the IBEW membership. In general, the tentative agreement provides improvements in IBEW members' salaries and benefits.

Achieving the tentative settlement was facilitated by the involvement of two mediators appointed by Federal Minister of Labor and Housing Joe Fontana earlier this week.

E. Hunter Harrison, President and Chief Executive Officer of CN said: "I am very pleased that we were able to reach this tentative agreement, and that we were able to avoid any labor disruption. This was the best possible outcome for all of us: employees, company and customers."

IBEW Senior System General Chairman Kevin Kearns said: "We believe this tentative settlement addresses the issues brought forward by our membership. It will form the basis for a continued relationship between IBEW members and the company."

Canadian National Railway Company spans Canada and mid-America, from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to the Gulf of Mexico, serving the ports of Vancouver, Prince Rupert, B.C., Montreal, Halifax, New Orleans, and Mobile, Ala., and the key cities of Toronto, Buffalo, Chicago, Detroit, Duluth, Minn./Superior, Wis., Green Bay, Wis., Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, St. Louis, and Jackson, Miss., with connections to all points in North America.

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