Last week we reported on last-ditch efforts to avert a Canadian rail strike, with two of Canada’s leading railroads planning to strike over safety and worker disputes. After a short lockout, the strike was called off.
How was the strike threat resolved?
The Teamsters Union, which represents two of the railroads in question – Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City – saw its members hold a lockout on Thursday, August 22nd. The lockout was 18 hours long. Soon after, members had been advised that a strike would begin on Monday, August 26th.
However, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) intervened to impose arbitration and mediate the dispute. The move came after weeks of the Canadian government refusing to get involved in the rail worker dispute.
After the move by the Canadian government, the railroads began to resume normal operations this week.
Canadian National moved first to resume operations, while Canadian Pacific Kansas City soon followed with its own steps to resume operations. The shipping and logistics world gave a collective sigh of relief with the avoidance of the strike, which was widely expected to severely disrupt the Canadian-U.S. rail supply chain and trickle down to nearly all sectors of the U.S. economy as key goods would have been delayed indefinitely.
For its part, the Teamsters Union said it was happy to see workers continuing to be able to show up on the job and get paid, but that more progress was needed on labor relations with the rail companies. Additionally, there were some concerns that the Canadian government intervention will dilute bargaining power in the future.
What comes next?
A new collective agreement will need to be signed by all parties to ensure smooth operations and worker and union satisfaction in the near future, but for now, the threat is severely diminished.
