A labor dispute between the Canadian National (CN) Railway Company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) has left the Canadian fertilizer industry with concerns about a possible strike or lockout by the end of October.
Contract negotiations between CN and TCRC, which represents 3,300 conductors, trainmen, yardmen, and traffic coordinators, broke down on Oct. 7, but collective bargaining reportedly resumed on Oct. 21 with the help of a federally appointed mediator. At issue, according to TCRC, are demands by CN management to reduce limitations on when trains can be operated without a brakeman, and also to extend by two hours the period that crews are sometimes required to work in one shift.
“The company refers to this as an increase in productivity,” said a TCRC spokesman in a statement to CBC News. “We see it very clearly as requiring an employee to perform more work for more hours, which will end up with fatigued employees operating dangerous equipment, and that’s when accidents are likely to happen.”
Recent rail accidents in Canada – including the deadly derailment in July of a 74-car freight train carrying crude oil in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, and the more recent derailment on Oct. 19 of 13 CN railcars carrying propane and crude oil west of Edmonton, Alberta – have focused scrutiny on Canada’s rail industry and prompted calls for enhanced safety measures (GM Aug. 19, p. 1). According to CBC News, CN has stated that none of its bargaining proposals with TCRC would “in any way compromise the health and safety of TCRC members.”
If an agreement is not reached by the time the mediation period expires at midnight on Oct. 28, a lockout or strike could commence within 72 hours.
“The Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI) is concerned about the potential of a CN Rail strike,” CFI told Green Markets last week. “Rail service disruptions are damaging to the Canadian economy in general and Canadian export industry in particular. Even the threat of a strike has serious repercussions on the Canadian economy and on the reputation of our exporters in foreign markets as buyers move to other sources of supply.”
An earlier dispute over wages in 2007 (GM Feb. 12, 2007) between CN and the United Transportation Union-Canada (UTU) resulted in a 15-day strike by some 2,800 UTU members. The 2007 walkout occurred in February, right as the Canadian fertilizer industry was gearing up for the spring planting season and Canadian potash producers were transporting tons to Vancouver to fulfil the export requirements of Canpotex (GM March 5, 2007).
As a result, the 2007 strike prompted demands from CFI, fertilizer producers, and other impacted industries for the Canadian government to intervene quickly by passing back-to-work legislation to end the impasse (GM Feb. 26, 2017). A spokeswoman for Labor Minister Kellie Leitch said last week that the government is closely monitoring the current dispute between CN and TCRC, and is urging both parties to continue negotiations.
“The Canadian fertilizer industry faces an annual logistical challenge of moving 25 million tonnes of product,” CFI said last week. “CFI members simply cannot afford the repercussions of a rail disruption.”