CP rail receives strike notice
Pressure on railway to get chugging grows as unions give 3-day notice
CALGARY— Commodity shippers fear further disruptions in getting their products to market after two unions representing about 3,400 workers at Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. served 72-hour notice of their intent to strike on Wednesday.
The notices come at a difficult time for the railway, which is under pressure to move backed-up grain shipments and supply locomotives to the pipeline-constrained oil industry in Western Canada.
“The disruptions we saw in Q1 this year and even at the end of last year were incredibly significant,” said Greg Northey, director of industry relations with Pulse Canada, a member of the Ag Transport Coalition.
“A strike on CP would obviously be an order-of-magnitude kind of disruption to the movement of grain …”
He said rail shipping of grain has been better, but not satisfactory, with shippers reporting that Canadian National Railway supplied 83 per cent of demand and CP Rail at 53 per cent of demand in the week of April 2-8. A CP Rail work stoppage would be “extremely detrimental” to member companies of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, who rely on rail to ship about 80 per cent of their products, CEO Bob Masterson said in an open letter to federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, “as there are no viable alternatives for shipments.”
Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said earlier this week the government is watching the situation because of its implications for grain and other commodity movements.
Proposed legislation, Bill C-49, would give the government tools to help farmers with cash flow and compel railways to move grain or face penalties, but those measures are tied to separate provisions around a new air passenger bill of rights — provisions that have raised concerns in the Senate, where the bill has stalled.
Both Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, representing about 3,000 CP Rail engineers and conductors, and International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, with about 365 signal and communications workers, cite slow progress at the bargaining table.
CP Rail said it presented the Teamsters with new three and five-year agreement options Monday and planned to present the IBEW with three- and five-year options Wednesday.