Over 9,000 workers across three separate bargaining units at Canada’s two national railways have overwhelmingly voted in favour of strike action.
Train conductors, locomotive engineers, yard workers, and rail traffic controllers at Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) voted 98% in favour of a strike, Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said at a news conference Wednesday in Ottawa.
Workers could be off the job as soon as May 22 and Boucher warned a strike at CN and CPKC at the same time would send major shock waves through national supply chains and the Canadian economy.
“A simultaneous work stoppage at both CN and CPKC would disrupt supply chains on a scale Canada has likely not experienced,” he said.
Boucher accused the two rail companies of collusion and trying to strip critical safety provisions related to worker rest periods out of collective agreements.
“To be clear, any work stoppage will be the fault of the companies, not the union nor its workers,” he said.
A CN news release today said its offer to the union represents “a more modern agreement,” based on an hourly rate and scheduling that would have provided significant wage increases and offered scheduled consecutive days off, provisions for no layoffs, and reduced hours away from home.
However, the company admitted negotiations remain difficult.
“Regrettably, CN maintains a cautious outlook regarding possibility of finalizing a deal before a labour disruption that would affect the Canadian supply chain, the North American economy and our employees,” the statement said.
A rail strike would deal a major blow to Prairie farmers, who depend on rail movement to ferry their crops from the interior to port positions on the west coast.
In a statement today, the Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) called for the two sides in the dispute to settle their differences.
“As farmers, our operations are closely tied to rail transport, both inbound to access crop inputs and outbound to deliver grain to export position,” said GGC Chair Andre Harpe. “A rail strike now is the last thing we need. We’re at a critical point in the seeding season, and any delay in shipping can directly affect our bottom line and cause substantial economic losses across the agricultural sector.”
The GGC statement noted that in June 2023, Canada exported over 2.6 million tonnes of grain. That translates to a potential economic loss of over $35 million for each day in June that a rail strike persists.
