MONTREAL — So much for the idea that the Canadian rail labor situation had been resolved.
Canadian National Railway announced that it has received a 72-hour strike notice from the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which would launch a strike against the railroad at 10 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 26.
CN had ended its lockout of TCRC engineers and conductors at 6 p.m. Thursday night, after Canada’s Labor Minister, Steven MacKinnon, announced he would order CN and CPKC to resume operations and send the dispute between the railroads and the TCRC to binding operation. The strike notice comes after the union announced early this morning that it would return to work at CN, but maintain its picket lines at CPKC, which has not yet ended its lockout pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board [see “Teamsters Canada returning to work at CN …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 23, 2024].
The union said in a statement today (Aug. 23) that it had issued the strike notice “to protect workers’ right to collective bargain and frustrate CN’s attempt to force arbitration” as a measure “to pressure CN into negotiating an agreement.” It noted that the CIRB has yet to make a ruling that would require binding arbitration or end any work stoppage.
“By sidestepping the collective bargaining process and ordering binding arbitration, the federal government has undermined the foundation on which labour unions work to improve wages and working conditions for all Canadians,” TCRC President Paul Boucher said. “Bargaining is also the primary way our union fights for rail safety — all considerations that outweigh short-term economic concerns.”
The actual prospects for a strike remains highly uncertain.
“The impact of this notice will depend on the timing of the CIRB,” CN said in its statement earlier today. “It is in the national interest of Canada that the CIRB rule quickly, before even more harm is caused.” CN also claimed the strike notice “confirms that the Teamsters never took the negotiations seriously and they had no desire to reach a deal.”
The strike notice posted on the TCRC website says, “We do not believe that any of the matters we have been discussing over the last several days are insurmountable and we remain available for discussion in order to resolve this matter without a further work stoppage.“
The CBC reports that Teamsters Canada President François Laporte said this morning in Calgary that company demands would have broken the union’s collective agreement. “We believe in fair and honest bargaining and that’s what we want, we want a fair and honest bargaining with the company,” Laporte said.
Laporte and other union officials were appearing at a rally outside CPKC headquarters.
— Updated at 5 p.m. CT with statement from TCRC.
