Canada’s railways grind to a halt

The lockout of rail workers by Canada’s two major railways has begun.

12:01 AM EDT on August 22, after negotiations that began last year failed to bring about a resolution to the dispute, CN and CPKC announced at that they would lockout their employees who are members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC). The move affects roughly 9,000 employees at the two companies.

“Throughout this process, CN and CPKC have shown themselves willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck,” said Paul Boucher, President, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, in a release issued shortly after the lockout was announced.

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In its announcement of the lockout, CN said that they had been committed to avoid the work stoppage right up to the deadline and that the union did not respond to a last-minute offer by the railway to bridge the gap.

“This offer improved wages and would have seen employees work less days in a month by aligning hours of service in the collective agreement with federally mandated rest provisions,” read the announcement released shortly after midnight. “Without an agreement or binding arbitration, CN had no choice but to finalize a safe and orderly shutdown and proceed with a lockout.”

For their part, CPKC said they had bargained in good faith in the months since the TCRC contract expired late last year, but a negotiated outcome appeared out of reach.

“The TCRC leadership continues to make unrealistic demands that would fundamentally impair the railway’s ability to serve our customers with a reliable and cost-competitive transportation service,” read the announcement.

The CPCK release went on to say the only way forward is for the parties to engage in binding arbitration.

Both railways had previously requested binding arbitration. Most recently, CN made a formal request to Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon on August 9, but the government rejected the request a few days later.