Rail cars carrying containers sit idle near the Roberts Bank Super Port following a rail workers’ strike on August 23, 2024 in Delta, British Columbia, Canada. – Freight traffic across Canada resumed on August 22 after the federal government stepped in to end a disruption caused by industrial action at the country’s two largest rail operators, Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City. Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon ordered the extension of current collective bargaining agreements and ordered “operations on both railroads to resume immediately.” (Photo by Don MacKinnon / AFP)

Ottawa, Canada – Canada’s Industrial Relations Board on Saturday called striking rail workers back to work and imposed binding arbitration to resolve labour disputes at two major freight companies that threaten to bankrupt the North American economy.

Both Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) staged work stoppages on Thursday morning, 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 ordered the strikes to end by Monday.

READ: Canadian government steps in to end crippling freight shutdown

The Teamsters union said it would abide by the ruling but also appeal in federal court.

Paul Boucher, chairman of the Teamsters’ Canadian Railway Conference, said the decision was “a dangerous precedent.” It signaled that “big companies only need to shut down operations for a few hours and inflict short-term economic losses on unions, and the government will step in and break up the union.”

“The rights of Canadian workers are now significantly limited,” he added.

CN expressed disappointment that no agreement could be reached at the negotiating table, but welcomed the independent tribunal’s decision, which “effectively ends the unpredictability that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months.”

CN workers had already returned to work on Friday morning, but hours later the union filed a strike notice for Monday – which is now invalid.

Meanwhile, CPKC employees had initially refused to resume operations because they doubted the constitutionality of the government intervention.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon told X that he expects “railway companies and employees to resume operations as soon as possible”.

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 $1 billion Canadian ($730 million U.S.) 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.

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.

MacKinnon called on the CIRB on Friday to initiate binding arbitration, saying: “Canada’s economy cannot wait for a settlement that has been delayed for so long and where there is a fundamental disagreement between the parties.”