Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) said it will have trains running again by Friday, June 1, after back-to-work legislation was approved on May 31 to end a walkout by 4,800 engineers, conductors, and rail traffic controllers represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
The strike over employee pension benefits, which began shortly after midnight on May 22 (GM May 28, p. 1), put a halt to CP’s freight services across Canada, prompting warnings from Labor Minister Lisa Raitt about severe economic impacts, and demands from Canadian industry, including the fertilizer industry, to reach a quick resolution to minimize shipping delays. Raitt had warned that the strike would cost the economy C$540 million a week.
The back-to-work bill was introduced on May 28, one day after federally mediated discussions between CP and the union once again broke down. The legislation received House approval on May 30 and Senate approval during an emergency session on May 31. Following the Senate vote on Thursday, CP said it would have cars rolling again within 12 hours, and freight service returning to full capacity some 48 hours after that.
Raitt warned of the potential for lengthy delays, however, due to the shipping backlog that resulted from the nine-day strike. According to CP, the railroad moves approximately 10,000 shipments a day for some 3,000 customers across a 24,000 kilometer network.
In a May 28 statement, the Canadian Fertilizer Institute (CFI) applauded the back-to-work bill, saying its members “simply cannot afford the repercussions of a rail disruption.” Citing tight fertilizer inventories and strong global demand, CFI said the industry currently has unit trains of potash scheduled to move from Western Canada to Vancouver for export, as well as fertilizer scheduled to move domestically and cross-border to the U.S.
“Each day that CPR workers are off the job means lost exports and jobs for the fertilizer industry,” said Roger Larson, CFI president.“This disruption is escalating the real potential for layoffs and production shutdowns.”
Larson warned early in the week that fertilizer buyers in foreign markets could move to other sources of supply if the work stoppage continued and the bill’s passage was delayed. “Now is the time for all Parliamentarians to work together to ensure minimal damage is done to the Canadian economy, and Canadian export industries in particular,” Larson said.
The bill now sends the dispute to a government-appointed arbitrator, who has 90 days to impose a deal on the two sides unless they can reach their own agreement. In testimony before the Senate on May 30, Raitt said the two sides should agree to arbitration of their own making rather than “essentially roll the dice and let a body in Ottawa determine how an important issue like pensions is going to be decided.”
Contract negotiations between CP and the union began in October 2011. In a statement on May 29, CP said it has made “multiple reasonable and good faith offers to the Teamsters on various items such as pensions, health spending accounts, a 48-hour rest provision, and other fatigue management counter measures that add to and complement many existing regulatory and negotiated provisions.”
Peter Edwards, CP’s vice president of human resources and industrial relations, said these measures “and other work rule proposals offered by the company exceed those that the Teamsters have in place with other North American railways.”
Edwards also criticized the union for pushing their members “into an unnecessary work stoppage,” and refusing in negotiations to “minimize the impact on other affected CP employees, our customers, and the Canadian economy.”