Pulse Canada leads campaign against rail strike

Pulse Canada has organized a letter writing campaign to push the government to halt the looming labour stoppage at Canada’s railways.

The Stopthestrike.ca campaign was launched shortly after the Canadian Industrial Labour Board decision on August 9 that confirmed rail transport is deemed non-essential. The website includes a clock that counts down the days, hours and minutes before the trigger is pulled on the railways promise to lock employees out if the strike is not settled by August 22.

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“The only way the event will be stopped is if the parties can come to an agreement at the negotiating table, and at the moment, there’s no sign that they’re able to bargain effectively,” said Greg Northey, Vice President Corporate affairs with Pulse Canada. “By saying there they’re going to lock out their employees, the railways are clearly signalling that things aren’t working at the bargaining table, and we’re just not confident that that they’ll be able to come to any kind of resolution.”

Since the campaign began, Northey has been busy galvanizing support for the effort and producer groups and grain shipping organizations from across the country have put their weight behind the campaign.

Northey said there’s a section in the Labour Code that gives the Minister the power to end the strike.

“It’s in Section 107 and that section details that if it’s unclear that parties are able to effectively bargain, that he can intervene,” he said. “So he has to use those powers before we hit the 22nd.”

Northey said there are a number of possible solutions that could come out of invoking Section 107, but the main one is binding arbitration, which the railways have already asked for; most recently, by CN in the wake of the CIRB decision on August 9.

However, CBC reported on August 15 that in a letter they obtained, Labour Minister Steven Mackinnon rejected CN’s request saying it’s the responsibility of the railways and the union to come to an agreement and that the government wouldn’t intervene and thinks an agreement can still be reached.