By: Yasmin Hassan, Staff Writer

The week of August 20 saw a railway strike from the Teamsters union, halting the movement of all trains owned by Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC). After months of labour talks between the union and companies, hopes of reaching an agreement fell through on August 22. 

Teamsters had been negotiating improved offers, “with better pay, improved rest, and more predictable schedules.” CN and CPKC issued an “employer-imposed work stoppage,” leaving over 9,300 engineers, conductors, and yard workers unable to perform their jobs and pausing the progression of labour talks. 

Shortly after the lockout, members of the union were seen picketing at various locations, including railways and headquarters of CN and CPKC, in response. The Peak reached out to Teamsters but did not receive a statement by the publication deadline. 

Teamsters workers told Spring Magazine they are concerned about their health and safety, and are primarily asking for “longer periods of rest between shifts” as they carry “heavy items, sometimes even explosives,” at work. “It is not just our safety that they are neglecting by not giving us our demands, but the safety of everyone who is by those train tracks,” one worker said. Another worker highlighted the Lac-Mégantic railway accident in 2014, which occurred due to inadequate rest times of CN and CPKC workers. 

Nisha Patel, a senior reporter with CBC, described the worker “lockout” as “an aggressive bargaining tactic.” Economists have speculated that the stoppage and ensuing strike by the union will inflict considerable economic damage and delay the supply chain, as CN and CPKC both haul $1 billion worth of goods daily. The damages would also involve cut shifts and layoffs in the manufacturing industry, delay penalties, and inventory running out. 

17 hours after the lockout, CN and CPKC called for Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to enforce binding arbitration, taking away the union’s opportunity to bargain and risking an uneven settlement.

As of yet, there have been no evident developments showing major issues with trade and cargo, although Patel notes that “a one-week rail disruption can often take six weeks to get things back on track,” indicating the economy may still be affected. 

Teamsters told its members that CN is “again attempting to put profits and operational ease ahead of [their] personal safety and the safety of the public.” Paul Boucher, head of the union, claimed CN and CPKC are “willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck.” 

In a statement to The Peak, CN said, they “would have preferred a negotiated settlement.” They added, “After nine months of attempting to reach a settlement, it was evident that the Teamsters were not looking for a resolution and were happy to keep applying pressure by inflicting damage to the Canadian economy, which started in April as traffic began diverting away from Canadian ports.” 

17 hours after the lockout, CN and CPKC called for Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to enforce binding arbitration, taking away the union’s opportunity to bargain and risking an uneven settlement. Binding arbitration means the dispute was given over to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) for a third party to find a solution, forcing the workers to resume work until new contracts could be created. This prevented the union from enacting its constitutional right to strike. In their statement, CN noted, “We continue to prepare to participate in the binding arbitration process. While that process is ongoing, we are focusing on our recovery plan and powering the economy.”

Apart from cargo, nearly 32,000 Canadians who rely on railway transportation for work were either forced to reroute their commute, work from home, or not go to work due to the stoppage. Railway lines owned by CPKC in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver were frozen, including Metrolinx’s Milton line, TransLink’s West Coast Express, and Exo’s Candiac, Saint-Jerome, and Vaudreuil/Hudson lines. On August 24, CPKC released a statement noting they will “restart rail operations” and are “executing its restart plan for the safe and orderly resumption of rail service across Canada.”

In a speech on August 28, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed that the lockout from CN and CPKC was “unhelpful” and the decision to call for binding arbitration was made “reluctantly.” Teamsters condemned the government, with Boucher noting that it “signals to Corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in to break a union.”