Air Canada pilots have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate, which could see them walking off the job as early as next month and cause massive delays for travellers.
According to the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents the over 5,400 aviators employed by Air Canada, said the vote passed with an approval rate of 98% on Thursday.
“Air Canada pilots are working under pay rates and quality-of-life provisions negotiated in 2014. Negotiations for a new agreement began in June 2023,” reads an ALPA statement released on Thursday.
“Talks entered private mediation in January 2024 and lasted until June 2024, at which point the union decided to file a notice of dispute and enter conciliation because the two sides were unable to reach a new collective agreement.”
Employees began negotiating with the country’s largest air carrier last June. Talks were being overseen by a federal conciliator.
The process will wrap up on Monday, followed by a three-week cooling off period. However, if an agreement is not reached, the strike is slated for Sept. 17.
The chair of Air Canada’s union contingent Charlene Hudy said that Thursday’s vote sends “a clear message to management” that if a better contract isn’t secured, pilots are ready to take job action.
“Today, more than 5,400 Air Canada pilots sent a clear message to management that we are willing to go the distance to secure a contract that reflects the value we bring to Air Canada,” said Hudy.
“Our goal is to avoid a strike, and our focus remains on modernizing our contract for Air Canada pilots. However, management continues to force us closer to a strike position by not listening to our needs at the negotiating table regarding fair compensation, respectable retirement benefits, and quality-of-life improvements. After more than a year of negotiations, management must now come to the realization that if they fail to reach an agreement, they will be responsible for us withdrawing our services.”
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau said that both parties are already in agreement on several key issues earlier this month and that he hopes the two can strike a deal soon.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford expressed strong support for his government’s decision to close supervised drug consumption sites located near schools and daycares, criticizing the federal government’s safer supply program.
“As far as I’m concerned the federal government is the biggest drug dealer in the entire country,” said Ford on Wednesday while speaking with reporters in St. Catharines, Ont.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford accused the Trudeau government of being the “biggest drug dealer in the entire country.” pic.twitter.com/Lr6BdFM0Xt
“It’s unacceptable, it needs to stop. We need to get rid of safe supply and put money into treatment and detox beds, that’s what we need to do, not continue to give people free drugs.”
Health Canada recently approved 16 safer supply projects in the province, 15 of which will be located in southern Ontario and one in Thunder Bay.
“I get endless phone calls about needles being in the parks, needles being by the schools and the daycares, that’s unacceptable,” said Ford.
The federal government claims that these facilities are “providing prescribed medications as a safer alternative to the toxic illegal drug supply to people who are at high risk of overdose.”
However, several studies show that safe supply sites often lead to an excess of overdose deaths in the areas where they are opened.
“Ever since they’ve been up, it’s a failed policy,” said Ford. “Simple as that. We are making a better policy — $378 million to help these people, support them, get them back on their feet, get them a good paying job. That’s what we need to do, we don’t need to feed them drugs.”
Decriminalization in B.C. was first implemented last year and the province has since seen an overdose death rate of 46.2 per 100,000, which would make it the highest in recorded history.
“They get to go up there (safer supply sites) and get endless, endless amounts of drugs and guess what they do? They go out and they sell it and get other people addicted and then they go out and get stronger drugs,” said Ford.
Another problem that has surfaced since the implementation of safe supply sites is prescribed drugs routinely winding up in the hands of organized crime, who turn around and sell these taxpayer-funded drugs on the street.
Police have been sounding the alarm about this problem for some time. B.C. RCMP seized over 10,000 pills, including hydromorphone, codeine and dextroamphetamine, much of which was presumed to have originated from safe supply sites in an organized crime bust earlier this year.
“It’s being trafficked into other communities, and it is being used as currency in exchange for fentanyl, fuelling the drug trade,” London police chief Thai Truong told reporters last month.
Ford’s comments came a day after his government announced it would close safe supply sites within 200 metres of schools and children.
“Giving someone, an addict, a place to do their injections — we haven’t seen it get better. This was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It’s the worst thing that could ever happen to a community to have one of these safe injection sites in their neighbourhood.”
The work stoppage of Canada’s two main railway companies is likely to lead to major supply chain issues as Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. haul a combined total of $1 billion worth of goods daily.
While the effects may not immediately be felt by many Canadians, over 32,000 rail commuters are already being forced to find alternative means of travel for work in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Commuters who use the TransLink’s West Coast Express in the Vancouver area, Metrolinx’s Milton line and Hamilton GO station in the Greater Toronto Area, and Exo’s Candiac, Saint-Jerome and Vaudreuil/Hudson lines in the Montreal area have all been affected by the strike as well as Via Rail’s northern Ontario line that runs through Sudbury.
However, commuters are just the tip of the iceberg, effects will be felt in grocery stores too and will worsen dramatically should the dispute drag on.
According to Food Health & Consumer Products of Canada, people in Atlantic and Western Canada will be the most impacted by the halt of perishable goods.
“A one-week rail disruption is expected to require six to eight weeks of recovery time before normal service levels are restored,” said the FHCP in a statement. “With rail carrying the equivalent of approximately 20,000 truckloads of consumer-packaged goods per month, the alternative—trucking—cannot adequately compensate for this volume.”
“After just 10 days of labor disruption, the estimated lost sales in Western and Atlantic Canada could reach approximately $40 million per week. This disruption will not only strain supply chains but also inflate costs and limit the availability of essential goods.”
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business said it has already been contacted by several businesses which have expressed fears about not being able to receive the crucial products they need to remain active.
“CFIB has already been hearing from businesses concerned about not getting essential shipments of aviation gas for forest fighting equipment, manufacturing inputs, vehicle parts, retail products, and agricultural equipment. Embargoes of certain refrigerated products or high-risk chemicals (e.g., chlorine, fuels, etc.) were in place even before the full lockouts,” Christina Santini, director of national affairs told True North.
Santini said that smaller businesses are poised to have a very difficult time when it comes to altering modes of transportation to keep things up and running.
“Alternative modes of transportation of goods can be inaccessible for many small businesses, as trucking capacity is already strained and shipments are now stuck in the system,” she said.
In addition to transportation issues, Santini said that many businesses had already been keeping less inventory in stock due to the current high cost of borrowing capital, meaning many products could soon become discontinued for the time being.
“We have heard that with the higher cost of borrowing and difficulty in accessing capital, many businesses have less inventory on hand,” said Santini. “These businesses may soon find themselves unable to offer certain products and services to consumers.”
Canada’s agricultural sector, especially in the Prairies, will also be seriously hurt without access to railways necessary for shipping and receiving products.
Agriculture industry advocacy group Fertilizer Canada warned that the strike will not only be felt hard at home but will take its toll globally as well.
“Farmers around the world rely on Canada’s fertilizer industry to maximize crop yields, and the fertilizer industry relies on rail to get our products to market,” said Karen Proud, head of Fertilizer Canada in a statement on Thursday.
The unprecedented strike began at 12:01 am Thursday morning after the two parties failed to reach an agreement with their employees’ union past the midnight deadline.
Union employee rest time, scheduling and wages were at issue during the negotiations.
Controversial union leader Fred Hahn has not resigned from his position as general vice-president and president of CUPE Ontario despite being asked to resign by Thursday at noon.
Hahn was asked to resign by CUPE’s national executive committee over a controversial anti-Israel post, saying they’ve lost their confidence in Hahn’s ability to represent his union’s members.
Hahn has recently come under fire for a video he uploaded to social media in which an Israeli athlete was depicted diving off of a diving board, spliced with a video of an Israeli bomb being dropped in Gaza before hitting the water.
CUPE Ontario and the national branch are separate entities.
Hahn is no stranger to controversial posts that have been labelled antisemitic by Jewish groups A day after the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attack against Israel by Hamas, Hahn expressed gratitude for the “power of resistance” by workers around the world.
Hahn’s post, along with several other posts from CUPE became the basis for a human rights complaint by dozens of Jewish members of CUPE alleging antisemitism and systemic discrimination against Jews.
While CUPE initially denied the allegations of antisemitism, Hahn’s latest controversy has done the union no favours in its case before the human rights tribunal.
Kathryn Marshall, the attorney representing CUPE’s 80 Jewish members in the human rights complaint, expressed disgust for Hahn’s conduct and shared a letter from one of the complainants denouncing Hahn’s post.
“I was horrified to see the blatantly anti-Semitic vile, disgusting video he posted on Facebook showing an Al generated Jewish diver at the Olympics,” reads the statement.
“After years of trying to work with Fred to educate him, it is clearer than ever, he is not interested in including Jewish members as part of a safe space in CUPE. The harm he continues to cause is unrelenting and damaging to not only the Jewish members but to CUPE as a whole and the labour movement.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford applauded CUPE’s national executive’s call for Hahn to resign, calling Hahn a “disgusting human being.”
“I’m getting messages on my phone from CUPE members saying his comments have been disgusting. In my opinion, he’s a disgusting human being anyways,” said Premier Ford.
The growing controversy led to CUPE’s national executive to call for Hahn’s resignation.
“In light of a social media post made by Brother Fred Hahn on August 11, and the impact it has had on CUPE members and the national union, CUPE’s National Executive Board met on Tuesday and voted to ask Fred Hahn to resign as a General Vice President,” reads CUPE’s statement.
Irrespective of Hahn’s departure, Marshall says that she will continue to pursue the human rights complaint against CUPE.
“Hahn must resign but CUPE is ultimately responsible for the environment they have created where someone with his horrific views could thrive and hold leadership positions. Hahn is part of the problem, but CUPE must be held accountable for the years of discrimination,” said Marshall.
Hahn must resign but CUPE is ultimately responsible for the environment they have created where someone with his horrific views could thrive and hold leadership positions. Hahn is part of the problem, but CUPE must be held accountable for the years of discrimination.
The longest-running school survey of adolescents in Canada, ongoing for almost five decades, has shown a decline in mental health in Ontario in 2023.
Almost one in five of the over 10,000 Ontario students surveyed between Nov. 2022 and June 2023 reported attempting suicide in the past year, according to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health’s Ontario Student Drug Use and Health Survey.
While 18% of students reported serious thoughts about suicide in the past year, 19% said they harmed themselves on purpose. One in twenty, 5%, of students reported attempting suicide in the past year.
The 10,145 students surveyed were in grades 7 to 12 in 848 classes across 235 schools in Ontario. The data collected were based on self-reports submitted through anonymous questionnaires.
Since monitoring began in 2007, the percentage of students who rate their mental health as fair or poor has risen from 11% to 38%. Similarly, 37% of students reported elevated stress levels, up from 29% since monitoring began in 2015.
Dr. Hayley Hamilton, Co-Director of the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research, said in a press release issued by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health that these data should cause concern regarding youth mental health in Ontario.
“Currently, more than half of Ontario students report symptoms of depression and anxiety, and a third of students (31%) rate their ability to cope as fair or poor. This trend points to a generation under increasing stress and the need for continued and increased investments in youth mental health,” said Hamilton.
Ontario students are becoming less able to deal with the stress they face.
Between the first year of monitoring in 2019 and 2023, the percentage of students reporting an inability to cope with unexpected and difficult problems increased from 23% to 31%.
Increased medication use has not seen mental health issues improve. The percentage of students reporting medical use of ADHD drugs and the use of medications to treat anxiety and depression have both significantly increased since they were first monitored, from 2% to 5% and 3% to 10%, respectively.
While using prescription drugs has become more common, the opposite can be said for recreational drugs. Cannabis use and vaping have both decreased among Ontario students since 2019. Alcohol use and smoking cigarettes have both seen steady decreases over the last 25 years.
For the first time in the survey’s history, females are more likely than males to use certain drugs. Girls are more likely to use cannabis, 21% vs. 15%, vape, 18% vs. 9%, and drink alcohol, 39% vs. 33%.
One-third of Ontario students surveyed, 33%, said that they felt they needed mental health support from a professional during the past year but did not seek it. The most common reasons for not seeking support were thinking they could handle it themselves, worrying about how others would perceive them, and not having enough time.
Dr. Leslie Buckley, Chief of the Addictions Division at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, said that the recent research should be a call to action for parents and young people.
“It’s crucial that we continue to break down barriers to seeking support. If you’re struggling, please know that help is available and that asking for it is a sign of strength, not weakness.”
The Ford Motor Company is changing course on its electric vehicle plans in response to declining interest in the market, it announced on Wednesday.
The company will kill production of its three-row SUV and has put its next-generation pickup truck on the back burner, replacing it with a new mid-size pickup and a van.
Ford will be taking a non-cash charge of around USD $400 million to write-down the assets for the SUVs it had originally planned to manufacture, which may lead to additional losses of up to $1.5 billion.
“We are committed to innovating in America, creating jobs and delivering incredible new electric and hybrid vehicles that make a real difference in CO2 reduction,” said Ford President and CEO Jim Farley in a statement on Wednesday.
“We learned a lot as the No. 2 U.S. electric vehicle brand about what customers want and value, and what it takes to match the best in the world with cost-efficient design, and we have built a plan that gives our customers maximum choice and plays to our strengths.”
Ford is not the only major automaker that has had to delay or cancel EV production plans as a result of declining sales, General Motors has also had to do the same.
For the second year in a row, Canadians’ interest in EVs has declined, with fewer than half of Canadians now saying they plan to make their next car purchase an electric vehicle.
A whopping 52% of potential buyers said they were “very unlikely” to consider an EV for their next vehicle purchase.
On the other hand, only 28.5% of potential buyers said they were willing to go electric, down from 34% two years ago.
“Overall, while almost half of non-EV owners are open to buying an EV for their next vehicle, interest in EVs has declined for the second year in a row, from 68% in 2022 to 56% in 2023,” said Tiffany Ding, director of insights and intelligence at AutoTrader.
While many Canadians cited the high cost of EVs as a reason for not wanting to purchase one, Farley said that Ford’s California team has been developing plans for more affordable EVs, which will first include a mid-size electric pickup to be released in 2027.
“The work of this highly talented team has evolved into a critical enabler of our electric vehicle strategy. These electric vehicles will be lower cost, and not compromised in any way,” said Farley.
Additionally, the company plans to roll out a commercial EV van from its Ohio assembly factory in 2026.
However, the much anticipated successor to Ford’s F-150 Lightning EV truck has been further delayed and won’t be available until late 2027, despite its initial plans to be out by next year.
Ford said the delay will allow for the company to take advantage of lower-cost battery technology.
The company also announced plans to shift towards hybrid vehicles, aiming to peak the interest of consumers who want longer-range vehicles for road trips.
In Canada, Ford has completely shifted away from EVs, announcing last month that it plans to build large super duty trucks at an Ontario production plant it had originally intended to use for electric vehicle production.
The automaker’s Oakville assembly complex was set to be converted into an all-electric vehicle plant but now Ford says it will be investing $2.3 billion into super duty truck production instead. Despite taxpayers committing $590 million to Ford in the form of a subsidy partnership between the federal and provincial governments to build EVs, the company has delayed all EV plans for at least the next three years and laid off employees in the sector.
A homeless person who allegedly stabbed a security guard at a pizza restaurant in Oshawa, Ont., had a warrant out for his arrest for nearly two weeks before the altercation.
The victim of the stabbing was rushed to a Toronto-area trauma centre with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, according to a Durham Region Police Services news release.
Police responded to an armed person call at a pizza shop at Simcoe Street North and Beatrice Street East on Monday at around 10:15 pm. When police arrived, the security guard had already been stabbed.
“A male entered the restaurant, who was not permitted to be there. A security guard saw the male enter the business and attempted to remove him. A verbal disagreement occurred, which resulted in the suspect stabbing the security guard. Police arrived on scene and took the suspect into custody without incident,” the report said.
Neil Francis Squires, 50, “of no fixed address,” was charged with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and possessing a weapon dangerous to the public.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of the Attorney General told True North that Squires was issued a bench warrant on Aug. 6 for mischief over $5000.
He allegedly stabbed the security guard 13 days later.
The spokesperson said Squires’ next court hearing will be on Aug. 27 at 10:30 am at the Oshawa courthouse.
DRPS did not respond to True North’s request to comment.
“This is another sign and symptom of the decaying of Canadian society,” lawyer and political commentator Ari Goldkind told True North in an interview. “The seriousness of such a person being out, skipping court and being free to stab somebody who’s just doing their job as a security guard trying to protect the public…when we go shopping, is something that we should not be blase about.”
Goldkind believes this attack should never have happened and is a consequence of soft-on-crime approaches to justice.
“There are a significant number of people who have been released, on bail or promises to appear, who either don’t show up for court with no recourse for that until they’re luckily or magically caught and or who will commit serious crimes of violence while they were out on bail,” Goldkind said.
He said that in this situation, the courts did what they could by issuing a bench warrant, presumably for not attending a court hearing, though it requires police action to ensure criminals are off the streets when the courts have ordered their arrest.
“This person is left unlawfully at large in the community, subject to arrest. I can probably assure you that the police are not looking for him or people who are on bail for far more serious offences and who have skipped bail or not shown up for court,” Goldkind said. “We are at the point where fatigue is setting in the public that opens up the news every morning and sees, instead of one or two shootings or stabbings it’s ten or 12.”
He said that police might be able to do more with more resources.
“There is only so much police can do. There is only so much taxpayer money that can be thrown at police. Given how much taxpayer money is wasted and thrown away in Ottawa, the police, I’m sure, would love to have a hundred more officers looking for such people,” Goldkind said. “The country that we’re living in has security guards, families, children, drivers and homeowners more and more each day, subject to exactly this kind of crime by exactly these kinds of people. It is really up to Canadians to say enough is enough.”
Police are asking anyone with information about the incident to contact D/Cst. Armstrong of the Central East Division Criminal Investigations Branch at 1-888-579-1520 ext. 2741.
Just as John Rustad’s Conservative Party of British Columbia takes the lead in the polls, Premier David Eby is pulling no stops to scandalize his main opponent.
A recent poll released Tuesday by Mainstreet Research showed that if the election were held today 39% of British Columbians would vote for the B.C. Conservatives while 35% would vote for Eby’s provincial NDP.
At a press conference, Eby criticized Rustad for several candidates nominated under his party, most of whom have been removed.
“I think John Rustad should explain how it is that consistently he is putting forward candidates that embrace and promote conspiracy theories from the darkest corners of the internet. Because actually, I think that’s his core belief as well,” Eby said, echoing a statement released by the B.C. United party on the same topic.
B.C. United received 12% of the vote in the same poll that projects Rustad ahead of the NDP.
Eby pointed to Sharon Hartwell, the B.C Conservative candidate for Bulkley Valley—Stikine as an example.
Hartwell said Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, leaders in the Freedom Convoy movement who are currently undergoing the most extended mischief trial in Canadian history, “continue to be an inspiration” on social media.
“If I were to suggest something, it might be that John Rustad come out and explain why he’s nominating candidates who, for example, find the people on criminal trial for the anti-vax convoy conduct that they engaged in, why they would describe that as inspiring, as one conservative candidate recently did,” Eby said in the video.
The Freedom Convoy protest held in Ottawa in 2022 was against mandates which required Canadians to get COVID-19 shots to keep their jobs or to go to school and were not explicitly “anti-vaccine.”
“The Freedom Convoy was an inspiration because it demonstrated the power of standing up against government overreach and defending our freedoms,” Hartwell said on Facebook last week in response to the outcry.
Eby noted previous B.C. Conservative nominees who have been kicked out or have resigned from the party over comments they have said which don’t align with Eby’s vision of acceptable discourse.
“(Rustad should) explain why he nominates candidates who think that people who are gay are perverts and deviants and grooming children,” Eby said, referring to former B.C. Conservative candidate for Courtney—Comox, Damon Scrase, dropped out of the race for past social media comments he made before being a candidate.
Scrase was targeted for old tweets he made condemning people who attend Pride parades in the nude around children as “degenerate” and retweeting photos he found disturbing from Pride parades.
According to Scrase, he dropped out of the race at the end of May so his comments wouldn’t distract from the coming provincial election.
“I think it would be helpful for (Rustad) to come out and explain why his candidates believe that cell phone towers caused COVID-19 and are genocidal weapons,” Eby continued.
Opponents claim that Rustad’s candidate for Prince George—Mackenzie, Rachel Weber, “promoted conspiracy theories” on social media four years ago on Facebook.
According to the B.C. United party, Weber shared Facebook posts in 2020, at the start of the pandemic lockdowns, from a group called “Stop 5G Genocide” that said that “EMFS + 60ghz, 5G, is a weapon.” Other posts that Eby and B.C. United pointed to was from the same group, suggesting that 5G frequencies were altering the human immune system, making it more susceptible to COVID-19.
Eby also mentioned Dr. Stephen Malthouse, an anti-vaccine mandate doctor and former B.C. Conservative candidate for Ladysmith—Oceanside. Malthouse was dropped from the party at the end of March once clips surfaced of him saying the COVID-19 shots were magnetizing people.
“David Eby is getting desperate. Instead of running on his disastrous policies, he’s trying to gaslight the public and slander the Conservative movement. The BC NDP is losing and is desperate to try to distract from their failing government by attacking our candidates,” Angelo Isidorou, the campaign director for the B.C. Conservatives told True North. “I believe British Columbian voters are smart enough to see through the noise and clearly assess the failures of the NDP, including decriminalization of hard drugs, a worsening affordability crisis and rampant crime.”
Canada’s two largest railways are officially on strike in an unprecedented shutdown as Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. failed to reach an agreement with their employees’ union past the midnight deadline.
Union employee rest time, scheduling and wages were at issue during the negotiations.
“Despite months of good faith negotiations on the part of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, parties remain far apart, and both CN and CPKC have begun their lockout of 00:01 today,” said Teamsters Canada, the union representing the employees for both companies in a post to X.
‼️Despite months of good faith negotiations on the part of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, parties remain far apart, and both CN and CPKC have began their lockout of 00:01 today.#canlabhttps://t.co/rXR9QymzVW
CN Rail also released a statement saying that “without an agreement or binding arbitration, CN had no choice but to finalize a safe and orderly shutdown and proceed with a lockout” after the Teamsters “union did not respond to another offer by CN in a final attempt to avoid a labour disruption”
“This offer improved wages and would have seen employees work less days in a month by aligning hours of service in the collective agreement with federally mandated rest provisions. The offer also proposed a pilot project for hourly rates and scheduled shifts on a portion of the network as CN continues to believe this is a better and more predictable framework for our employees,” wrote CN.
The two railway companies locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers as of midnight on Thursday and the work stoppage is likely to create major supply chain disruptions across Canada, affecting industries like agriculture, mining, forestry and public health.
“Throughout nearly a year of negotiations, CPKC has remained committed to doing its part to avoid this work stoppage. CPKC has bargained in good faith, but despite our best efforts, it is clear that a negotiated outcome with the TCRC is not within reach,” said CPKC in a statement released on Thursday.
A source who wished to remain anonymous told True North that the union offered to stagger labour action to both companies, which refused at the same time, which the source alleged to be an act of collusion and “union busting.”
The two rail companies haul a combined $1 billion worth of goods daily, transporting everything from cars and clothing to food and raw materials.
CN Rail started to embargo hazardous goods, including toxic materials, chlorine and ammonia from the U.S. last week in anticipation of the strike.
CPKC also said it would be temporarily banning traffic of such goods to ensure that no trains carrying them become stranded on the tracks ahead of Thursday’s deadline.
Now over 32,000 rail commuters across Canada will also have to find alternate routes to the office due to CPKC work stoppage.
Commuter lines affected by the strike are TransLink’s West Coast Express in the Vancouver area, Metrolinx’s Milton line and the Lakeshore line’s Hamilton GO station in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as Exo’s Candiac, Saint-Jérôme and Vaudreuil/Hudson lines in the Montreal area.
Additionally, those who use Via Rail’s 480-kilometre Sudbury to White River line in Northern Ontario will be forced to find another means of travel.
“Since the beginning, CN has sought a fair deal for employees, consumers, and its customers,” media relations director Jonathan Abecassis told True North in an email.
“We have made four offers to the Teamsters. Offers that improved safety, increased wages, and provided employees with better schedules and predictability and opportunities to work. Offers that would avoid the shut down of the Canadian economy.”
“Any statement to the contrary is false and intended to mislead from the real issue: the Teamsters inability or unwillingness to negotiate seriously,” he added.
However, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Paul Boucher said that CN was demanding concessions that would have brought employees back to “another era” regarding safety provisions.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged the two parties to come to an agreement without federal intervention.
“My message has been straightforward. It is in the best interest of both sides to continue doing the hard work at the table to find a negotiated resolution,” Trudeau told reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Teamsters Canada argues that it was never its intention to go on strike and that this was a result of both rail companies refusing to offer a “safer and more humane” industry for employees to work in.
“Since the outset, rail workers have only ever sought a fair and equitable agreement. Unfortunately, both rail companies are demanding concessions that could tear families apart or jeopardize rail safety,” Christopher Monette, director of public affairs for Teamsters Canada told True North.
“Rail workers have fought for a safer and more humane industry for decades, and we will not accept moving backwards.”
According to Monette, CN is demanding extended workdays in all provinces west of Ontario as well as implementing a forced relocation scheme, which would mandate workers to have to move across the country to fill labour shortages wherever necessary.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been updated ot include statements from CN, CPKC and TCRC.
