29 December 1999

BC Rail Ltd. Hit by Strike

BC Rail Ltd., which carries Canadian forest products to the United States and coal for Japan, was shut down for a second day on 28 December, as the company locked out its unionized employees in a labour dispute. The BC Labour Relations Board scheduled contract negotiations to begin on 28 December.

BC Rail Ltd. is owned by the provincial government, and serves the north and interior of the province. About 50 per cent of its business is comprised of lumber and other forest products bound for the US and Asia. The railway has recently suffered as a slump in exports to these markets has caused several sawmills to close.

While the freight and passenger railway is shut down, shippers of forest products, coal and some mineral concentrates will have to find alternatives for transporting their goods. These alternatives would essentially be trucks.