maaxx.ca

Jakarta –

The Canada Industrial Relations Board on Saturday (24/8/2024) ordered an end to the strike at the country’s largest railway company. If this measure continues, it will continue to cause service disruptions and threaten the Canadian economy.

The independent labour tribunal made the decision after Canada asked Thursday to end the impasse in separate talks between the roughly 9,000 Teamsters members, Canadian National Railway (CNR.TO) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CP.TO).

Canada, which is the second largest country in the world in terms of land area, relies heavily on trains to transport various products and goods.

Cited by Reuters on Sunday (25/8/2024), the railway company said in a statement that train operations at CPKC, where workers were locked out and on strike, would resume no later than 00:01 ET (0401 GMT) on next Monday.

The labour board’s decision averts a planned strike Monday by locomotive engineers, conductors and other workers at Montreal-based CN, days after Canada’s largest railroad ended its shutdown and began restoring service.

A Teamsters spokesperson said workers would not return early, despite the CPKC asking employees to return to work Sunday. But the Teamsters also confirmed that CN workers will not strike Monday following the CIRB decision.

“We expect it will take several weeks for the rail network to fully recover from this work stoppage and some time thereafter for the supply chain to stabilize,” the CPKC said.

The decision to end the strike is the latest development in the labour dispute at CN and CPKC, which caused Teamsters members to walk off the job Thursday. It also triggered a simultaneous shutdown of rail operations, which could have resulted in economic losses of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The disruption could also have significant implications for farmers and agricultural businesses in Canada and the United States. Wade Sobkowich, executive director of the Western Grain Elevator Association, which represents grain companies, said they have been urging the government for weeks to refer the matter to the CIRB.

“This means that the government is actually listening to what Canadians are telling them. We cannot afford to harm the economy ourselves,” he said.

In addition to ordering an end to the shutdown, the council implemented the government’s request to impose binding arbitration to have the parties reach a new agreement and to impose the continuation of existing contracts until a new agreement is reached.

On the other hand, the Teamsters said in a statement that workers’ rights were seriously compromised by the decision and that they would appeal to the Federal Court.

The Teamsters union wants its members’ working conditions and wages to be determined through negotiation, despite disputes with CN and CP over schedules, shift lengths and availability. CN, for example, wants its employees to work up to 12 hours per shift, up from 10 hours in the current agreement, a measure the unions oppose.

(shc/das)