Rail strike could strand $55M worth of Alberta products each day

Workers at Canada’s two main railways could go on strike as early as Thursday.

Negotiations between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), Canadian National Railway (CN), and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) are showing no signs of progress.

Roughly two-thirds of every Canadian dollar comes from exports. A strike would halt more than $1 billion in goods that travel through Canada’s railways every day.

TCRC, which represents thousands of workers at CPKC, served a 72-hour strike notice on Sunday.

Shortly after that, CN issued its own notice, saying it plans to lock out workers unless an agreement is reached or binding arbitration happens.

Both railways have already started halting some shipments.

Starting Tuesday, CPKC will be embargoing all new rail shipments originating in Canada or shipments in the States that are destined for Canada.

Alberta’s minister of jobs, economy and trade says the province exports about $55 million dollars worth of products everyday.

He’s advocating for the federal government to step in.

“With the implications to the Canadian and Alberta economy, to consumers, farmers, businesses, to our trading partners, the collateral damage being so high, we do believe the federal government must intervene whether by binding arbitration or even be willing to reconvene parliament and look at back-to-work legislation,” Matt Jones told CTV News Edmonton on Monday.

Jones said a strike could have far-reaching implications for businesses and farmers, who would have no way to ship their products.

“Producers will have to make decisions on whether they furlough production, because you can’t necessarily produce something if you can’t move it,” he said.

“I think with the collateral damage so high, the federal government must act to intervene here.”

Last week, CN asked the federal labour minister to impose binding arbitration to force a deal to be reached, but the minister rejected that request, saying that all parties need to negotiate in good faith.

This morning, the minister wrote in a statement that the collective bargaining negotiations belong to CN, CPKC and TCRC workers alone, and that the parties must do the hard work necessary to reach agreements at the bargaining table and prevent a full work stoppage.

A few hours before the union issued its strike notice, the federal minister posted on social media that both companies and the union were continuing to negotiate alongside federal mediators.