TORONTO
Canada’s Department of Industry and Trade has called striking rail workers back to work and ordered binding arbitration to resolve labour disputes at two major freight companies that threatened to jeopardise the North American economy.
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On August 22, both Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) went on strike, locking out nearly 10,000 Teamsters workers.
The government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded quickly to the measures to end the strikes and referred the disputes to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), which had them settled by an arbitrator.
The board has ordered that the strikes end today.
The Teamsters union said it would abide by the ruling but also appeal in federal court.
Canada is the second largest country in the world by area and is heavily dependent on rail transport.
CN and CPKC’s rail lines stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific and south to the United States, transporting an estimated $730 million worth of goods every day.
This was the first time in Canada that the two railroads had experienced simultaneous strikes; in the past, they had negotiated collective agreements in alternate years.
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Business associations and farmers had warned of costly disruptions to the economies of the G7 countries, which would also have consequences for the United States, as Canada has closely integrated supply chains.
At the heart of the dispute were workers’ concerns about long working hours and fatigue, which would lead to dangerous working conditions.
The companies and the union blamed each other for the work stoppage, which followed nine months of fruitless negotiations.
