The decision by Canada\u2019s labor minister to not intervene in contract talks between the country\u2019s Class I railroads and unions has upped the risk of a work stoppage within the next week, and both railroads have stopped accepting containerized freight in response.<\/p>\n
Labor Minister Steve MacKinnon declined a request by Canadian National Railway (CN) to invoke a labor law the railroad had argued would \u201csecure industrial peace\u201d in contract talks with Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), his office said in a letter sent Thursday.<\/p>\n
CN made the request in early August, asking MacKinnon to force both sides to accept an agreement negotiated through binding arbitration because the union \u201chas not engaged meaningfully at the negotiating table.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the letter, MacKinnon\u2019s office said it\u2019s up CN to bargain with the union, but that Canada\u2019s mediation services would be able to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is your shared responsibility \u2014 Canadian National Railway Company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference \u2014 to negotiate in good faith and work diligently towards a new collective agreement,\u201d the ministry wrote.<\/p>\n
In November 2022, US President Joe Biden intervened to prevent a nationwide strike by union rail workers and brokered a tentative deal that was eventually approved by rank-and-file.<\/p>\n
Phasing shutdowns<\/p>\n
In response to the letter, CN said Thursday it has begun a phased shutdown of its Canadian network, adding that if no deal is struck with TCRC, it will lock out employees on Aug. 22. CN continued to argue that binding arbitration is necessary because it has made four offers to TCRC since January without a counteroffer.<\/p>\n
\u201cA prolonged shutdown of rail operations will have a significant impact on supply chains: creating delays, possible shortages and increasing costs,\u201d CN said in a statement. Earlier this week, the railroad informed shippers that it would not be accepting new loads of hazardous materials.<\/p>\n
On Friday, CN will extend the embargo to include intermodal cargo from several origins and destinations. That includes dry containers going from or to the ports of New York and New Jersey and Philadelphia, containers it interchanges with CSX Transportation that originate in the Ohio Valley, interchange cargo with Norfolk Southern Railway to the US West and East Coasts, and its joint Canada-US-Mexico service with Union Pacific and Ferromex.<\/p>\n
The potential lockout would come just 13 days after the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) issued a decision that railroad services would not be considered essential to public safety and health.<\/p>\n
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) on Thursday likewise said it will lock employees out on Aug. 22 if a deal is not reached. CPKC also said it would stop accepting new shipments of hazardous materials, though it will allow non-hazardous intermodal containers to be brought to its terminals until those facilities are full.<\/p>\n
The largest impact of a lockout would likely be seen at the Port of Vancouver, Canada\u2019s busiest container port, Scott Shannon, vice president of CH Robinson, told the Journal of Commerce. He said Vancouver already has a backlog of roughly 13,000 intermodal containers from previous rail slowdowns due to a port strike and wildfires in 2023 that disrupted train service.<\/p>\n
Ships coming into Vancouver should still be able to discharge, and shippers should be able to transload freight to trucks, Shannon noted. However, he warned that if containers are not retrieved from Vancouver\u2019s terminals in a timely manner, the port will become congested quickly given the absence of regular train service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rail ramps there have been almost continually congested since the summer of 2023,\u201d Shannon said. \u201cVancouver just hasn\u2019t been able to catch a break or catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Port of Prince Rupert receives the vast majority of its cargoes via CN.<\/p>\n
Source:<\/p>\n
Angell, M. (2024, August 15). Ottawa rejects call to head off Canada rail work stoppage<\/i>. Journal of Commerce. https:\/\/www.joc.com\/article\/ottawa-rejects-call-head-canada-rail-work-stoppage_20240815.html<\/p>\n The decision by Canada\u2019s labor minister to not intervene in contract talks between the country\u2019s Class I railroads and unions has upped the risk of a work stoppage within the next week, and both railroads have stopped accepting containerized freight in response. Labor Minister Steve MacKinnon declined a request by Canadian National Railway (CN) to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[84,87],"class_list":["post-3039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-maritime","tag-rail"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3040,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3039\/revisions\/3040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ems.cohesionfreight.com.hk:8080\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}