Canadian labour authority orders return of railway workers and imposes binding arbitration
Canada’s federal arbitrator has ordered workers at the country’s two largest railroad companies to return to work, imposing binding arbitration after a work stoppage that began Thursday morning and brought freight transport to a halt.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday approved Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s request for arbitration and an extension of the workers’ expired contracts cleared the way for the railroad to resume operations on Monday.
Canadian National Railway (NYSE: CNI) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE:CP) suspended service on Thursday after talks with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference failed. After MacKinnon filed for arbitration, CN trains resumed service early Friday, but CPKC workers went on strike and the Teamsters issued a strike notice to CN this morning.
The Teamsters union said it would abide by the panel’s decision but would appeal the ruling, arguing that it sets “a dangerous precedent” and “significantly curtails the rights of Canadian workers.”
CN Rail (CNI) expressed disappointment that no agreement could be reached at the negotiating table, but was “satisfied that this order effectively ends the unpredictability that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months.”
CKPC (CP) expects that it will take “several weeks for the railway network to fully recover from this work stoppage and a further period of time for supply chains to stabilize.”