Canada’s two major railways resume service as railroaders return to work

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This article was published 26/08/2024 (452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONTREAL – Trains began to trundle along the tracks of Canada’s two major railways on Monday after the federal labour board ended a four-day work stoppage that snarled supply chains and upended commutes.

Amid a bitter labour dispute, the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday ordered Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. to resume operations and 9,300 workers to return to their posts at 12:01 a.m. ahead of binding arbitration set to begin this week.

While commuters on CPKC-owned lines in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver enjoyed a smooth ride to work on Monday, both railways have said a full recovery for freight traffic will take weeks.

“This is a process that will take several weeks to get us back to normal and to catch up the backlog that was accumulated during the shutdown period,” CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis said in a phone interview.

The labour board’s decision dropped two days after Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon directed the arm’s-length tribunal to begin the arbitration process, saying the parties were at an impasse in contract talks and Canadian businesses and trade relationships were at stake.

The union has vowed to fight the labour board’s decision in court, framing the outcome as a win for big business.

Teamsters Canada Rail Conference president Paul Boucher travelled to Halifax for the Liberal cabinet retreat this week, with a demonstration planned for Tuesday.

“What they have done to the railworkers … to stop the work stoppages fundamentally takes rights away from the rights to free collective bargaining, and we’re protesting against that,” Boucher said in an interview.

MacKinnon defended the order for binding arbitration shortly before the cabinet meetings got underway on Sunday.

“It’s hard to remember a decision that was more in the interest of Canadian workers,” the minister said.

“When you think of shutdowns in potash mines, when you think of car plants running out of inventory, when you think of forestry and aluminum operations … those are major economic consequences, and there are also major consequences in terms of salaries for unionized workers across the country.”

CPKC lifted its lockout after the labour board’s decision Saturday evening, but striking employees declined CPKC’s request to return to work for Sunday, opting to go back on the job on Monday morning in line with the tribunal’s ruling.

CN, which lifted its own lockout late last week, ramped up operations Monday. It first began the process of resuming shipments across 32,000 kilometres of track on Friday, with its employees never going on strike despite a 72-hour strike notice issued by the union that day.

While the financial impact of the stoppage remains unclear, Moody’s warned it could cost the Canadian economy $341 million per day. Agriculture, forestry and manufacturing were among the hardest-hit sectors, the credit rating agency said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CNR, TSX:CP)

— With files from Mia Rabson and Lyndsay Armstrong in Halifax