‘A dangerous precedent’: Union responds to board’s order for railroad workers to return to work
After a bitter contractual dispute close the country’s two main railway linesthe federal government work The board ordered thousands of railway employees to return to work on Saturday.
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has asked to send the parties to binding arbitration while a deal is negotiated between Canadian National, Canadian Pacific in Kansas City and the Teamsters union, which represents thousands of their workers.
The board also ordered that no other work stoppages, including lockouts or strikes, can take place during the arbitration process. This means that the strike notice recently sent to CN by the Teamsters is now null and void.
CN said it will comply with the order, which also extends the current collective agreement until a new agreement is signed between the parties.
In a statement, the Teamsters union said it would “legally comply” with the board’s decision, but would also appeal the ruling in federal court.
“This decision by the CIRB sets a dangerous precedent,” said Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, in a statement.
“This tells Canadian businesses that all it takes is for big business to shut down for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in and break a union. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly reduced today.”
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“The Trudeau Liberals have chosen to side with middle- and working-class Canadians, abandoning their so-called progressive values at the first sign of short-term supply chain disruptions. Teamsters have fought to protect Canadian rail safety, improve working conditions, and stop CN from forcing workers to move thousands of kilometres away from their families, and we will continue to do so.”
The union said it would legally comply with any decision of the council and was “prepared to file appeals in Federal Court if necessary.”
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MacKinnon said in an update posted to X that he “expects rail companies and employees to return to operations as soon as possible.”
Rail shutdown sends shockwaves through Canadian economyprovinces, economists, business groups, the agricultural sector, exporters and retailers expressing concerns about the risk of massive losses and supply chain disruptions in various industries that rely on rail networks.
The main sticking points in the negotiations The demands include relocation, rest periods and schedules. The union said the latter two demands are based on workers’ safety concerns.
The impasse has also affected tens of thousands of passengers in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, whose lines run on CPKC-owned tracks. Passenger trains would not be able to run on those tracks without locked-out traffic controllers to dispatch them.
-with files from The Canadian Press
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