CN workers heading back to work, CPKC stoppage ongoing, Teamsters say

Workers at Canadian National (CN) will be headed back to work today, their union said, but workers at Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) will remain off the job “pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).”

“Despite the Labour Minister’s referral, there is no clear indication that the CIRB will actually order an end to the labour dispute at CPKC,” the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) said in a statement this morning.

Yesterday afternoon, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon called a news conference to announce he would be forcing the Teamsters and railways into binding arbitration to bring an end to the lockout, which had begun earlier that day.

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He told reporters he hoped railways would be running again within days, however it was the CIRB’s purview to call the shots.

Late Thursday, CPKC released a statement saying they were “disappointed” by what they called the Teamsters’ refusal to discuss resumption of service, and said they’d be meeting again Friday morning.

The railway said the union planned to challenge the constitutionality of MacKinnon’s direction. The Teamsters indicated on social media platform X that they were “consulting with legal counsel to determine the next steps,” but did not elaborate in this morning’s statement.

They issued a media notice for a rally outside CPKC headquarters in Calgary this morning.