Canada has ordered its two main railroads to resume operations and enter binding arbitration. But Teamsters now move to strike.
Canada has ordered the country’s two main railroads to end the work stoppage that began on Aug. 22 after labor negotiations deadlocked.
Canada’s Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon intervened to order a binding arbitration process between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference and Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC). It will be mediated by a third party.
“I have directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to assist the parties in settling the outstanding terms of their collective agreements by imposing final, binding arbitration,” MacKinnon said during a press conference. “I have also directed the board to extend the term of the current collective agreements until new agreements have been signed, and for operations on both railways to resume forthwith.”
Work Stoppage Still in Play
Despite the order, the Teamsters are against the “forced arbitration” and served CN a notice that it intends to strike as off 10 a.m. ET on Aug. 26. As of Aug. 23, there has been no similar notice served to CPKC.
MacKinnon said it’s the government’s job to ensure “industrial peace.”
“We will be examining why we experienced repeated conflicts in the railway sector and the conditions that led to the parallel work stoppages we are seeing,” he added.
[Editor’s Note: This article was updated on Aug. 23 at 3:30 p.m. ET to include knews about CN issuing a strike notice.]
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Vesna Brajkovic
Vesna Brajkovic is MDM’s Senior Editor, having joined the company in May 2023. She has more than seven years of experience as a B2B publication editor, having focused on the commercial trucking, railroad, transit, fleet maintenance, automotive aftermarket and aviation industries. Brajkovic most recently spent the past two-plus years as Managing Editor of Heavy Duty Trucking for Bobit Business Media — where she reported and edited news and features on the commercial trucking industry, managed eNewsletters and social media, coordinated print magazine production and developed content for events and multimedia such as podcasts and videos. She can be contacted at vesna@mdm.com.
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