Over 9,000 Canadian rail workers may go on strike if their union’s latest demands are not met by their companies. Two of Canada’s major railways, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City may be shut down as of May 22.
The strike would include train conductors, engineers, yard workers and traffic controllers, all of whom are represented by the Teamster Canada Rail Conference, which voted in favour of a strike mandate if negotiations are not reached on Wednesday.
“The simultaneous work stoppage at both CN and CPKC would disrupt supply chains on a scale Canada has likely never experienced. This has not been and never will be the Teamster strategy, though we can’t be sure the same is true for the companies,” TCRC President Paul Boucher told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa, following the vote.
The negotiations are primarily about employee rest times.
CN said that the union will not comply with a “more modern agreement” predicated on an hourly schedule. The company said that this will help to “protect the Canadian supply chain, North American economy” and provide workers with a fair deal.
The parties are currently far from reaching an agreement, according to CPKC, who said their demands are in line with Canadian regulations and that their proposals for rest are not in conflict with work safety.
However, the TCRC claims that modifications to their rest provisions will create workplace safety issues.
“The accumulative effect of sleep disruptions, inadequate sleep facilities and varying duty periods can lead to significant safety risks. Claims that the companies are proposing predictable work schedules are inaccurate,” said Boucher.
“Instead, CPKC have proposed 12-hour calling windows, during which workers could be phoned up at any time and expected to go operate a train for another 12 hours. This could easily become dangerous if a person who woke up at 7 a.m. is called for a 12-hour shift at 5 p.m.”
Both railways argue that the union’s position is in line with regulations already in place under the Railway Safety Act, which states that an employee’s minimum rest period while operating at their home terminal is 12 hours and 10 hours when travelling or at a remote site.
The act also stated that an employee must have at least eight hours without being called by the rail company. Other fatigue self-assessment requirements for rail workers include ensuring that they’ve had at least five hours sleep in a 24-hour period for overnight shifts.
According to Boucher, such regulations are minimum requirements designed to work in tandem with collective bargaining agreement provisions, which were terminated on May 1.
Now the union and rail companies are in the 21-day cooling off period that is legally required before and further actions or agreements can take place.
“I have to admit, we’re extremely worried right now,” Grain Growers of Canada president Andre Harpe told Global News.
“We rely on the rail to bring a lot of the fertilizers that we use closer to the farm. So this could have a devastating effect on our bottom line. It gets back to at the end of the day, we have to get our seed in the ground with the right nutrients to get a crop. So, this sets up the year for us. So, we were extremely worried.”
Canada’s agricultural community is heavily dependent on rail to transport the majority of its products, from receiving fertilizers to their crops being exported for market.
The Port of Vancouver held a strike last year, which saw the halt of 52 grain ships being stuck at the port for some time over the labour dispute.
“Close to 95% of our grain is exported. To me, we are the breadbasket of the world. And it gets back to a lot of these countries that are dependent on timely flows of grain,” said Harpe.
