Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City are moving toward restarting operations early Monday following a Saturday ruling by the Canada Industrial Relations Board ending the work stoppages at both railroads. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, however, continues to take issue with the CIRB decision sending the dispute between the union and railroads to binding arbitration.
Meanwhile, all three commuter rail operations that experienced shutdowns because of the lockouts that began Aug. 22 now say they will resume regular operations Monday.
In its statement Saturday following the CIRB ruling, CPKC had asked union members to return to work in time for the day shift today (Sunday, Aug. 25) “so we can get the Canadian economy moving again as quickly as possible.” But a union representative told the CBC that it had declined that request. The CIRB ruling called for operations to resume at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday [see “Canadian agency upholds binding arbitration order …,” Trains News Wire, Aug. 24, 2024].
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference President Paul Boucher, in a message on the union’s website, reaffirmed the TCRC’s intent to challenge the arbitration order in court. Boucher also told union members he was en route to Halifax, Nova Scotia, to protest the decision at the Liberal Caucus Retreat, a three-day event for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and members of his cabinet that began today. Boucher said he would be joined by other union officials on Monday “to express our union’s disgust with the actions of this government,” and invited TCRC members in the Halifax area to join them.
Officials at Metrolinx, the parent of Toronto’s GO Transit, and Translink, the parent agency of Vancouver’s West Coast Express, said this evening that their operations which had been suspended will resume on Monday, joining Montreal’s Exo, which had made a similar announcement earlier in the day.
In Toronto, only GO Transit’s Milton Line and its Hamilton GO Centre had been affected. A GO representative told CTV News that some schedule adjustments may be necessary as the Milton Line service resumes. The West Coast Express web page says normal service is resuming Monday but may be subject to delays “due to a backlog of freight traffic.”
The Canadian Press had reported earlier that service will resume Monday morning on three Exo lines in Montreal that had service suspended because of the lockout at CPKC. Operations on the Vaudreuil/Hudson, Saint-Jérôme, and Candiac lines, which serve about 21,000 riders daily, had been halted Thursday. Shuttle bus service that had been planned to fill in for some of the commuter rail operation will still run on Monday to address “any issues that may arise,” spokeswoman Catherine Maurice said.
VIA Rail Canada is still listing its Sudbury-White River remote RDC service as suspended. However that train, the only VIA run halted as a result of the work stoppage, normally does not operate on Mondays, and the VIA website lists tickets as available on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
— Updated at 7:10 p.m. CT with new information on GO Transit, West Coast Express commuter operations.
