Rail workers moved closer to a strike that would disrupt supply chains from Halifax to Vancouver and down through the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) has announced that more than 9,000 employees at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. workers overwhelmingly voted in favour of job action to push the companies to include provisions to combat crew fatigue in their collective agreements. Over 97% of teamsters voted in favour of striking at Canadian National, and 99% for striking at Canadian Pacific Kansas City. The votes all had over 91% of members voting.
All negotiating committees have planned to be at the table in Montreal with the assistance Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS). This will continue right through the strike deadline or until a deal is reached. The TCRC will meet with Canadian National ahead of its strike deadline on May 13 and Canadian Pacific Kansas City on May 17. If no deal is reached with both companies, and the earliest the union could strike would be on May 22. “The simultaneous work stoppage at both CN and CPKC would disrupt supply chains on a scale Canada has likely never experienced,” Paul Boucher, president of the TCRC, said at a news conference. Boucher said the union will go back to the bargaining table and “do everything in our power to reach a fair deal for our members.”
The two rail giants account for nearly 90 per cent of the industry’s revenues and more than three-quarters of overall tonnage carried by the sector. “It would disrupt essential supply chains throughout North America, and significantly constrain trade between Canada and the U.S. and Mexico,” Canadian Pacific said in a statement. Passenger rail services on its network in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver will also be “unable to operate.”
This is an excerpt from Teamsters TCRC and the Financial Post.