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Brent Jang - Globe and Mail Update, May 12, 2007 at 4:33 PM EDT. [1]

The union leader of maintenance workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. said Saturday that 3,200 employees could go on strike late Tuesday night.

William Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference's Maintenance of Way Employees Division, said management and the union remain far apart on wages, working conditions and benefits.

CPR said last Tuesday that it has contingency plans to keep freight moving, starting by deferring expansion projects and other capital spending that currently employs 2,000 workers. That would leave Calgary-based CPR to assign more than 1,300 managers to fill in for 1,200 employees on day-to-day maintenance duties.

The Teamsters' members have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2006. The federal government appointed mediator Bill Lewis on April 26 to help resolve the dispute, but talks broke off on April 28. No new talks are scheduled.

CPR said it has offered wage increases of 3 per cent in 2007, followed by raises of 4 per cent in 2008 and 3 per cent in 2009, compared with the union's demand for hikes of 4 per cent in each of those three years.

The Teamsters members build and maintain tracks, bridges and structures for CPR.