Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) say they are moving ahead to lock out thousands of rail workers after a deal could not be reached Wednesday night.
Canada’s two main rail companies were locked in simultaneous and tense bargaining with the Teamsters union for days before the Aug. 22, 12:01 a.m. ET deadline passed.
CN and CPKC move more than $1 billion worth of goods per day across Canada on their railways.
The companies said they would start locking out workers in the early hours of Thursday if they couldn’t reach a deal with the union representing 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents workers from both railways, has demanded better wages, benefits and working conditions.
It claimed CPKC aimed to “gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions.” The union also said CN tried to foist a relocation clause on employees that would force them to move across Canada for months at a time to fill labour shortages.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Business Council of Canada, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, and the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters issued a joint statement Wednesday calling on the federal government to take “immediate action” to keep trains and the goods they carry moving.
More to come.