CN, UNION REACH DEAL
Rail workers returning to work
Canadian National Railway and Teamsters Canada reached a tentative deal to renew the collective agreement for 3,200 conductors and yard crews, ending a weeklong strike that choked the country’s rail capacity at a critical shipping time for farmers.
Employees were able to return to work as early as Tuesday at 2 p.m. ET, with normal operations resuming Wednesday at 6 a.m., according to statements from CN and the union. The parties have agreed to no further job action during the ratification process, which is expected to take eight weeks.
Details of the agreement will not be revealed until members vote on the deal by secret ballot, but the union previously said the dispute was over long hours and fatigue that led to what it characterized as dangerous working conditions.
The détente came as a relief to farmers, miners and the province of Quebec, which was facing a severe propane shortage. But rail-reliant industries still expect to be rattled by ripple effects as shippers deal with the backlog caused by the work stoppage that left Canada’s largest railway operating at 10-per-cent capacity.
Saskatchewan-based Nutrien Ltd., the world’s largest potash producer, will still shut down its mine in Rocanville, Sask., for two weeks starting Dec. 2, temporarily laying off 550 employees leading up to the holiday season.
“Unfortunately, it’s a tough position,” Nutrien spokesman Will Tigley said.
“Despite the best efforts that we tried to do to manage the disruption, the strike created significant backlog in our supply chain and resulted in lost export capacity that can’t be immediately recovered.”
The strike will affect Nutrien’s production by 200,000 tonnes, Tigley said, adding its resolution will prevent further slowdowns and is “great news” for farmers and the broader Canadian economy.
The Mining Association of Canada, the largest customer of Canada’s railways, expressed relief at the tentative deal but said it will take at least a week to move the backlog.
“Disruptions in the supply chain, such as those incurred by this strike, damage Canada’s reputation as a reliable trading partner and must be avoided at all costs,” the association said in a statement.
As the strike continued, the federal government faced increasing pressure from industry to force a return to work through binding arbitration or legislation. That would’ve required the new government to recall Parliament earlier than planned, an action it expressed reluctance to take.
Teamsters thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Labour Minister Filomena Tassi and Transport Minister Marc Garneau for letting the strike play out in the collective bargaining process. “This government remained calm and focused on helping parties reach an agreement, and it worked,” Teamsters Canada president François Laporte said in a statement.
In a joint news conference in Ottawa, Garneau and Tassi lauded their government’s hands-off approach, the negotiation process and mediators.
Still, the strike added to a tough year for the agricultural sector, already hit by bad weather and trade conflicts. The tentative deal eases pressure on grain farmers across the country that rely on rail to move crops to market and deliver the propane needed to fuel grain dryers and heat livestock barns.
“Now things can get somewhat back to normal,” said Markus Haerle, chairman of the Grain Farmers of Ontario.
The strike hit during peak shipping season for grain farmers like Haerle and during the closing days of an exceptionally difficult harvest, when wet conditions and heavy snowfall had left much of their crop still in the fields.
With no propane to dry the grains and no railcars to move them, many farmers opted to stop harvesting rather than risk letting their crop rot in bins.
“By the time we get things going again we will have gone two to three weeks without regular service,” said Haerle. “That’s going to matter.”
Though the tentative deal is “great news” it will be weeks before the propane supplies in Quebec, Atlantic Canada and Ontario are back to normal levels, said Nathalie St-Pierre, CEO of the Canadian Propane Association.
“We’re still in a crisis here,” she said. “I know there will be a lot of pressure from all kinds of commodities wanting the rails so they can catch up. We hope they will prioritize propane shipments because we still have to replace a lot of supplies.”
When asked if the government would push the railway to prioritize propane shipments, Garneau said the decision is up to CN.
The changing seasons add even more pressure on the railway. Getting back to full service quickly will be critical to making up as much of that lost time as possible, said Tom Steve, general manager of the Alberta Wheat Commission.
“I think it typically takes a while to restore a system that large and we know there are a lot of railcars sitting loaded through the country that will need to be cleared first before new loads can move,” he said.
“Grain moves 52 weeks a year, so any interruption has an impact.”