HALIFAX — Once again the United Transportation Union (UTU) cannot boast complete member solidarity, as a Halifax UTU local says it won’t participate in rotating strikes if ordered to by head office.

Local 713 Chairman Bill Johnson told Canadian Press he’ll tell his 57 members to ignore instructions to picket.

CN conductors and yard workers in Vancouver and Kamloops, and parts of Ontario walked off the job yesterday morning after nearly 80 percent of a total of 2,800 UTU members voted to reject a tentative deal struck between their union and the railway to end the initial two-week strike in February.

CN subsequently locked out workers picketing at five facilities, and warned it would do the same at any other location where workers walk off the job.

Cracks within the union were also apparent in the first strike, when about 350 workers in Atlantic Canada voluntarily crossed picket lines and returned to work. They followed dozens of workers in Sarnia, Ont. who returned to their posts to clear a backlog of containers at a chemical plant.

Johnson — a conductor for 22 years — told CP he thinks the two-week strike in February caused enough damage to the Canadian economy.

“The Port of Halifax is open for business and we’ll take any business that Vancouver wants to give us,” said Johnson, who added the UTU has lost the confidence of many members.

Meanwhile, fears among the shipper community are mounting that the Port of Vancouver could soon see containers piling up on docks and ships delayed as they wait for product to be loaded.

A fleet manager at an Ontario intermodal trucking carrier contacted by TodaysTrucking.com this morning said he has not experienced any major disruptions as of yet, but is monitoring the situation closely.

Federal Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said that the government is standing by with back-to-work legislation, but he prefers CN and the union reach an agreement themselves.

CN says it will return to the bargaining table, but doesn’t plan on budging from its last offer of 3 percent wage increases and $1,000 bonus for workers.

— with files from Canadian Press