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MINNEAPOLIS (DTN) -- After a tumultuous week of rail worker stoppage between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Canadian National (CN) railways, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) on Saturday, Aug. 24 forced binding arbitration on all parties.

CIRB chairperson Ginette Brazeau wrote in a pair of rulings that it faced two questions: 1) Does the CIRB have the authority to review the Canadian Labour Minister's exercise of discretion under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to order binding arbitration? And, 2) Does the CIRB have any discretion in the implementation of the direction?

Brazeau wrote, "After hearing from the parties ... the Board has determined that it does not have authority to review the Minister's directions or to assess their validity." She added in the Board's view, the Federal Court has the exclusive jurisdiction to review the Minister's directions.

"Further, and considering the clear statutory language contained in section 107 of the Code, the Board has concluded that, in this case, it has no discretion or ability to refuse to implement, in whole or in part, the minister's directions or to modify their terms," she wrote.

Stressing that CIRB understands the importance and consequences of the decision, as well as the circumstances and impact of the work stoppages involving Canada's two main rail companies, "it has decided to issue its conclusions in the form of a bottom-line decision."

COMPANIES, WORKERS ORDERED BACK TO WORK BY MONDAY

Brazeau then ordered the two companies to resume rail service operations and employees represented by TCRC to be directed to resume their operations and duties by 12:01 a.m. EDT Aug. 26 until the final binding interest arbitration process is completed.

The order also stated that the current terms of expired contracts are extended "to include the period beginning on Jan. 1, 2024, and ending on the day on which new collective agreements between the parties come into effect."

Finally, the order stated, "the parties are directed to attend a case management meeting with the Board on Aug. 29, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, to discuss the implementation of the arbitration process."

UNION REACTION

"The union will comply with the CIRB's decision. The Teamsters will, however, appeal the decision in federal court," said TCRC on its website. "This CIRB decision sets a dangerous precedent. Now, big business only has to shut down operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic damage, and the federal government will step in to break a union. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly reduced today," said Paul Boucher, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

In a separate letter to union members after the decision was announced, Boucher said, "I have left Montreal and am on my way to Halifax to protest this decision at the Liberal caucus retreat. Brothers Don Ashley, Christopher Lowe, Jim Lennie and Mark Kernaghan will join me in Halifax on Monday to express our outrage at the actions of this government."

CN RESPONSE

After receiving the CIRB order on Saturday, CN later that day said it would comply with the order.

"The CIRB has also ordered that no further labour stoppage, including a lockout or strike, can occur during the arbitration process. This means that the strike notice recently issued to CN by the Teamsters is now voided. CN will comply with the order which also extends the current collective agreement until a new agreement is signed between the parties." (https://www.cn.ca/…)

CPKC RESPONSE

Canadian Pacific Kansas City on Saturday said it will restart railway operations in Canada by 12:01 a.m. EDT on Monday, following the CIRB order requiring CPKC to resume operations and employees represented by TCRC to resume their duties.

"CPKC has asked the TCRC for employees to return to work for the day shift on Sunday so that we can get the Canadian economy moving again as quickly as possible and avoid further disruption to supply chains," the company stated.

"CPKC looks forward to welcoming all of our Canadian locomotive engineers, conductors, yard persons and dispatchers back to work. We are focused on restoring our railway to full strength as we get back to serving our customers and moving Canada's trade and commerce throughout North America." (https://www.cpkcr.com/…)

CPKC added, "We anticipate it will take several weeks for the railway network to fully recover from this work stoppage and a period of time beyond that for supply chains to stabilize."

On Sunday, CPKC sent a Customer Bulletin stating "CPKC has lifted all work stoppage related embargoes effective immediately."

ABC news said that "CPKC officially ended its lockout after Saturday's decision and asked workers to return for the day shift Sunday. But union spokesman Christopher Monette said workers who have been on strike won't be going back to CPKC before the Monday deadline in the order."

CN had already started running trains Friday morning, Aug.23, ahead of the strike notice which is now void. CPKC workers were already on strike as of Thursday, Aug. 22, so rail operations had stalled. (See DTN's Aug. 23 article about that strike notice, https://www.dtnpf.com/…)

ALBERTA GOVERNMENT REACTS

Sunday afternoon, the Alberta government reacted positively to the news about rail operations being ordered to resume. Premier Danielle Smith, along with some other ministers in her government, put out a joint statement.

"Each day this disruption continued would have had devastating impacts on our economy, workers, businesses, families, farmers and our relationships with Canada's valued trading partners," they stated.

"Since the beginning of the dispute, Alberta's government called on the federal government to end the work stoppage by either ordering binding arbitration in the dispute or passing back-to-work legislation.

"Going forward, we encourage the federal government to continue to respond quickly to labour disputes that have the potential to create widespread damage to Canadians, our country's economy and our reputation as a reliable trading partner," they said.

Here is a link to the TCRC website and comments, with links to both copies of the CIRB decision and what led up to the decision: https://www.teamstersrail.ca/…

See DTN Contributing Analyst Philip Shaw's column about the railways stoppage impact on farmers at https://www.dtnpf.com/….

Mary Kennedy can be reached at mary.kennedy@dtn.com

Follow her on the social platform X @MaryCKenn

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