OTTAWA — The Conservative government moved to introduce back-to-work legislation Monday to force striking CN Rail employees back to work.

"Employers and many groups said they would like to see our government acting,'' Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said outside the House of Commons in justifying the legislation.

"The health of our economy is very important. We saw what happened in February when ... about $1 billion of our exports we lost. Now it's time to act.''

It was unclear how quickly the legislation could make its way through Parliament, but it was virtually identical to a bill that was drafted more than a month ago just before a tentative agreement was reached between CN and its employees.

"We will process Bill C-46 like we had said a few weeks ago,'' said Blackburn.

Canadian National Railway said earlier Monday that a countrywide contract could not be reached with striking conductors in the United Transportation Union.

Opposition politicians were hesitant to criticize the back-to-work bill, saying they wanted to study it first.

"We'll have a look at the legislation and make an evaluation,'' said NDP Leader Jack Layton, who added that he would have hoped the government would not have to resort to a back-to-work bill.

"We'll see the reaction of the unions, we'll see what's coming,'' said Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe, adding that he was still hopeful that a contract agreement could be reached through bargaining.

Montreal-based CN Rail said that one group in the union is reporting for work, awaiting the outcome of the `raid' application by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference pending before the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

But the company said with no CN agreement on wages and working conditions, another UTU `faction' was engaged in rotating strikes.

"There's no strike in Quebec right now,'' Duceppe noted.

"It's a very bizarre situation, they're on strike and they're not, they're on lockout and they're not. I hope they'll take time before a decision is made here."

CN said it invited the union back to the bargaining table to negotiate regional settlements.

The union issued a statement Monday night saying the government should tell  CN "to get serious about bargaining'' rather than involving Parliament in the labour dispute.

"Only bargaining, not a back-to-work-law, will resolve the many outstanding issues at CN,'' said UTU vice-president John Armstrong in a statement.

Armstrong also said back-to-work legislation was a "special gift'' to CN Rail and attributed a slowdown of freight traffic on CN lines to the company's lockout of UTU members at eight work sites, including the yard at Port of Vancouver.