Companies begin to prepare locally for a potential work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Canadian National Railway.
A lockout/strike is possible at both railways after the Canadian Labour Board ruled that workers were not considered an essential service. A cooling-off period was part of the ruling, which means Aug. 22 is the soonest the work stoppage could happen.
Cenovus Energy, who relies on rail transportation for business operations, is taking steps to prepare the company for a stoppage.
“At this time, we’re closely monitoring the situation and putting plans in place to mitigate any impacts if a strike or lockout were to happen,” said Reg Curren, a media relations representative
Other parts of the Canadian economy are already starting to see dips in the transportation of goods due to embargoes implemented by the railways.
These embargoes were issued to prepare for the potential strike and to prevent chemicals such as ammonia from being stranded on the rails during a work stoppage.
Fertilizer Canada has already noticed a decrease in the shipping of ammonia, a crucial component of fertilizer, and has implored all parties involved to resolve the issue.
“Fertilizer Canada is calling on the federal government and Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to take immediate action to assist all parties, CN, CPKC, and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), in reaching agreements,” said Fertilizer Canada in a press release.
They would like to see a directive for binding arbitration that prohibits TCRC from going on strike and CN and CPKC from locking out employees.
According to both railway grain transportation schedules, the work stoppage could also halt upwards of 1.3-million metric tonnes of grain weekly.
Agriculture and Agir-Food Canada’s, the department of the Canadian Government responsible for agriculture in Canada is also monitoring the situation.
“The Government of Canada respects the collective bargaining process. Canada’s agriculture and agri-food sector relies heavily on strong and resilient domestic and global supply chains,” said Bronwyn Goodman, media relations advisor for AAFC. “We are monitoring the situation closely and encourage the parties to continue their work at the bargaining table. AAFC will continue to engage with stakeholders and provincial and territorial partners as the process evolves.”
According to TCRC the main sticking points are company demands not union proposals.
“Both companies want concessions on issues pertaining to crew scheduling, rail safety, and fatigue management,” states the union in a press release.
The union says, “CPKC wants to gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions. The end result will mean train crews would be forced to stay awake even longer, increasing the risk of derailments and other accidents.”
“Meanwhile, CN is targeting fewer articles around fatigue, but still enough to raise safety concerns. CN aims to implement a forced relocation scheme, which would see workers ordered to move across the country for months at a time to fill labour shortages.”
CPKC issued their own response to the public lockout notice.
“In response to opposition from TCRC leadership, CPKC has advised the union representing conductors and locomotive engineers that we will conditionally withdraw the offer for a new modernized, time-based collective agreement. That time-based agreement proposal was intended to address the union’s concerns related to work and time off scheduling, while allowing significant wage increases and additional customer service flexibilities,” states the release.
“CPKC will focus on a status quo-style contract renewal covering three years with competitive wage increases that are consistent with recent settlements with other railway unions and maintains the status quo for all work rules. The status quo-style offer fully complies with new regulatory requirements for rest and does not in any way compromise safety.”
The strike/lockout deadline is this Thursday.
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