Railroad stand-off: Canadian government steps in
Canada’s Labour Minister has stepped in to calm an industrial dispute between the country’s main freight rail providers and their employees after talks broke down and hundreds of services were suspended.
Canada’s Labour Minister has stepped in to calm an industrial dispute between the country’s main freight rail providers and their employees after talks broke down and hundreds of services were suspended.
Steven MacKinnon released a statement a day after talks between the Teamsters Canada union and Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) broke down.
Because the minister judged the parties to be at “a fundamental impasse” he invoked Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to begin the process of “a final binding arbitration”.
MacKinnon has tasked the Canada Industrial Relations Board with the arbitration process, and in the meantime with reasserting current collective agreements until new deals are agreed. It is hoped this will reopen rail operations and end the “lock out” of employees shortly, but no date has yet been set for the restart.
“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”.
Although businesses have reacted positively to the government action, Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said it risked the workers’ right to “free” collective bargaining.
