CP RAIL STRIKE
Business as usual at Vancouver’s ports despite job action.
It’s business as usual — for now — at Vancouver’s port terminals as they draw on existing inventory to load ships during the CP Rail strike.
“Right now, it’s not having much of an impact on us,” said Denis Horgan, general manager of Westshore Terminals Ltd., which loads coal from Teck Resources in Roberts Bank. He said the terminal is loading Teck inventory onto ships, as well as loading and unloading product from Burlington Northern Santa Fe and CN trains.
Teck is the world’s secondlargest exporter of seaborne metallurgical coal, which represents about 55 per cent of the product handled by Westshore. Horgan couldn’t say how long Teck’s inventory would last.
Canadian Pacific has suspended rail freight service across the country, but commuter trains like the West Coast Express that use CP track continue to operate amid a strike by some 4,800 engineers, conductors and other workers.
The employees, represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, walked off the job just after midnight Wednesday after the two sides were unable to reach an agreement Tuesday night. Negotiations continue.
In Ottawa, Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said the government is prepared to introduce back- to- work legislation if CP and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference can’t reach a deal.
“We want to create the atmosphere where they can do a deal on their own,” she told reporters. “But they have to be aware of the fact that the Canadian government will step in on the basis of the national economy and the greater public interest at some point.”
A prolonged strike would cost the Canadian economy an estimated $ 540 million per week, Raitt said, calling that figure “conservative.”
The strike follows a bruising months- long proxy fight with New York hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management — the railway’s biggest shareholder — that culminated last week in Fred Green’s exit as CEO. Green and five other board members stepped down hours before the company’s annual general meeting last Thursday after it became evident shareholders had voted overwhelmingly for Pershing’s director nominees.
Teamsters’ vice- president Doug Finnson said the union had not yet met with Green’s interim replacement, Stephen Tobias, but that the management shakeup had not affected the bargaining process one way or the other.
Jim Belsheim, president and CEO of North Vancouver’s Neptune Bulk Terminals, said Neptune handles up to 1,000 CN and CP trains a year, including significant volumes of steelmaking coal and potash shipped by CP Rail.
“Today, it’s essentially business as usual,” he said. “We’re still loading ships from our inventory on site.”
Asked how long that will last, Belsheim said he wasn’t sure.
“It’s a complex flow on timing of products and vessels,” he noted. “There’s too many variables, but I can say we’re working hard to mitigate the impact on our customers.
“It’s unfortunate, because we need to maintain our reputation internationally as a reliable and competent supplier to the world market. It’s important that this dispute is resolved.”
Marcia Smith, senior vicepresident, sustainability and external affairs, Teck Resources, said her company is CP’S largest Canadian client and that Teck ships coal and zinc through the Lower Mainland from several B. C. mines.
“Resolving this dispute is certainly important [ and] we’re pleased Labour Minister Lisa Raitt has made it her top priority,” Smith said, noting that CP handles 650 rail cars a day from Teck. “We will access stockpiles to ship our product to market.”
While the CP Rail strike has not disrupted service on the West Coast Express, some Rocky Mountaineer passengers are being rerouted by bus.
Company spokesman Ian Robertson said passengers in Kamloops are being bused to destinations in Alberta.
One route affected by the strike is from Kamloops to Banff and Calgary. Of the four routes that Rocky Mountaineer takes, only one uses CP Rail, while the other three use CN Rail, he said. The journey between Vancouver and Kamloops is not affected by the strike, he added.