Employees of Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) are waking up to find themselves out of work as negotiations between their union and Canada’s two largest rail companies have failed.
Under normal circumstances, these two rail services would be negotiating their labour contracts in different years however last year one of the companies received an extension to their negotiations resulting in contracts for both companies expiring at the same time. This is an unprecedented rail strike.
Labour negotiations ongoing since last year have failed with CN claiming that the last offer, had it been accepted, would have resulted in employees working fewer days in a month with work hours aligned between the collective agreement and federally-mandated rest provisions.
CPKC claims that it was committed to finding a way to avoid the work stoppage and that it was bargaining in good faith with the labour union.
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference negotiating on behalf of the nearly 10,000 rail workers, was aiming to improve wages and working conditions, and win flexibility for workers who are suffering fatigue.
According to a Teamsters statement released minutes after the shutdown, “neither CN nor CPKC relented on their push to weaken protections around rest periods and scheduling, increasing the risk of fatigue-related safety issues.”
The statement claims that CN continues to demand a forced relocation scheme, which could see workers ordered to move across the country, tearing families apart in the process.
Canada’s rail system moves fifty per cent of all goods destined for export and about two-thirds of goods moving within the country. The supply chain in Canada is dependent upon the rail service working.
America’s Union Pacific has stated that a shutdown in Canada will stop more than 2,500 railcars from crossing the US-Canada border each day.
The strike will also affect Canada’s ports since most goods arriving by sea are shipped by rail. The strike will leave ports backed up and goods amassing in the places where they were produced.
The strike threatens deliveries of cars, grain, timber, petroleum products, frozen food and other critical supplies such as aviation fuel while also impacting the mining and retail sectors.
Movement of electronics like computers and tvs, industrial chemicals, pharmaceuticals will be impacted. In fact, few sectors will be left untouched by the strike.
On Monday, Union Pacific CEO wrote to Canada’s Labour Minister to warn of the devastating consequences to both the US and Canadian economies. The same day, Trade Associations across the US also wrote to President Biden to outline the dangerous impact of a shutdown to agricultural producers and consumers and the impact on domestic and global food security.
Calls by CN for the Canadian Government to intervene have not yielded results. The Prime Minister has continued to encourage both sides to find a negotiated resolution.