Looming rail strike has Canadian shippers bracing for worst: ‘Nothing moves’
Shippers and producers held their breath ahead of a possible strike by thousands of railworkers this month that would halt freight traffic, clog ports and disrupt industries.
“The railways are two ribbons that go east to west, and there’s not much alternative if you cut those two ribbons,” said John Corey, president of the Freight Management Association of Canada, whose members include port authorities, manufacturers and other large shippers such as retailers Canadian Tire and Home Depot.
“The ports become useless. Nothing moves anywhere.”
Canadian railways haul more than $350 billion worth of goods and more than half of the country’s total exports each year, according to the Railway Association of Canada.
Anxiety over a strike by some 9,300 employees at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. has already cost the companies business after some customers started to reroute cargo following approval of a strike mandate by union members on May 1.
Then-labour minister Seamus O’Regan, in an apparent move to delay the disruption, asked the country’s labour board later that month to review whether a work stoppage would jeopardize Canadians’ health and safety.
The Canada Industrial Relations Board is examining whether there are critical shipments — chlorine for water and gasoline for cities, for example — that must continue in the event of job action, putting any potential work stoppage on pause until a ruling is made.
Either way, observers says the possibility of a strike will likely remain on the table after the decision — expected this Friday — as players in industries ranging from agriculture to big-box retail fret over the fallout.
“By kicking it down the road, all he did was really increase the
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