Railway calls workers to resume operations for Aug. 26 restart
Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) is recalling its unionized workers and expects to resume Canadian operations a minute past midnight on Aug. 26.
The lockout and work stoppage that the Calgary-headquartered rail carrier initiated on Aug. 22 is over.
In an Aug. 24 news release, CPKC said it will comply with a Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) requiring the North American rail carrier to restart its operations that have been shut down since Thursday.
CIRB will be convening a case management meeting between the railway and Teamster Canada Rail Conference on Thursday, Aug. 29, to discuss the imposition of final binding interest arbitration. As instructed by federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon late last week, the existing collective agreements between the company and the union are in force.
“Our team is executing its restart plan for the safe and orderly resumption of rail service across Canada,” said CPKC in a news release. “We are working with customers on a balanced return to normal operations.”
“The CIRB order ends months of unnecessary uncertainty and disruption for the Canadian economy and North American supply chains. We anticipate it will take several weeks for the railway network to fully recover from this work stoppage and a period of time beyond that for supply chains to stabilize.”
In calling it a “sad day for Canadian labour,” Teamsters Canada said it will comply with the decision but will contest the ruling in court.
“This decision by the CIRB sets a dangerous precedent. It signals to Corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in to break a union. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today (Saturday).”
This article was published by: Northern Ontario Business Staff
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