The Canadian Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon said he would not get involved in the dispute between the two main rail freight operators, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) labour union. Possible lockouts might start as early as next week “unless there is immediate and meaningful progress at the negotiating table or binding arbitration”, CN said.

CN asked the Minister to intervene last week to avoid a lockout that could possibly involve up to 10,000 CN and CPKC workers affiliated with TCRC. However, MacKinnon denied the request, saying that he trusts negotiations to get the job done and lead to a new collective agreement. The union said, in case a lockout will happen, it will be announced three days in advance.

Will a lockout be avoided?

CN was not too happy with the Minister’s decision, as Canadian CTV News wrote. The company said it hoped for government intervention given the stalling of the negotiations. Moreover, at the beginning of this week, both CN and CPKC halted shipments of hazardous goods from the US in anticipation of a possible shortage of workforce due to a lockout.

The labour union, on the one hand, claims that “both rail companies are demanding concessions that could tear families apart or jeopardize rail safety”. On the other hand, CP and CPKC both deny these allegations and accused TCRC of not participating concretely in the neogtiations. According to CTV News, Canada’s railways transport over 1 billion dollars of cargo every day, accounting for half of the country’s exports.