This story originally aired on Trains.com.
MONTREAL – Canada’s labor minister has denied CN’s request to intervene in contract talks with the union representing engineers and conductors.
Last week the railroad asked Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to send stalled contract negotiations to binding arbitration to prevent a work stoppage that would halt rail traffic in Canada beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 22.
But MacKinnon, in letters sent Wednesday night to CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said he won’t proceed with a so-called “section 107 referral.”
“Consistent with our discussion on August 5, 2024, I would like to clarify that it is your shared responsibility — Canadian National Railways Company and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference — to negotiate in good faith and work diligently towards a new collective agreement,” MacKinnon wrote.
Federal mediators are standing by to assist in contract talks, he added.
“I trust that with continued effort, an agreement can be achieved promptly. The Government firmly believes in the collective bargaining process and trusts that mutually beneficial agreements are within reach at the bargaining table,” MacKinnon wrote.
CN, in a statement on Thursday, said it was disappointed in the minister’s decision.
“We hope TCRC will listen to the Minister’s strong message that they must get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table. The Minister must reconsider his decision if they don’t,” CN said, adding that it has made four offers to the union since January.
The TCRC, which opposed CN’s request for binding arbitration, applauded MacKinnon’s decision.
“Teamsters Canada agrees with Minister MacKinnon: agreements are within reach at the bargaining table. It bears repeating that the main sticking points at the bargaining table are company demands, not union proposals,” the union said in a statement. “The only way forward is for the rail companies to engage in genuine negotiations at the bargaining table, and to back down from their demands for concessions.”
Talks between TCRC and CPKC also are deadlocked. Both railways have said they will be forced to lock out employees on Aug. 22 and that they have begun a phased shutdown of operations in Canada, starting with hazardous materials shipments.
The U.S. Surface Transportation Board on Wednesday said it was monitoring the situation in Canada.
“If a strike occurs, the U.S. rail network and supply chain could be affected,” the STB said in a statement. “The Board is aware that embargoes related to the potential strike have been issued and that the scope of the embargoes could expand in the coming days. The Board is monitoring the implementation and effects of those embargoes on the network.”
A work stoppage at CN and CPKC in Canada will have an impact on rail volumes in the U.S. and will affect multiple commodities. Among them: international intermodal, lumber and forest products, auto parts and finished vehicles, grain and other agricultural products, and petroleum products and chemicals.
About a third of CN’s revenue comes from U.S.-Canada cross-border traffic, while CPKC says 24% of its revenue comes from cross-border business between the U.S. and Canada as well as Canada and Mexico.
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