Rail labour dispute | CIRB approves Ottawa’s request to impose arbitration

(Ottawa) The Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) has approved the federal government’s request to impose binding arbitration to end the labour dispute that paralyzed the country’s two major railway companies on Friday.

In a unanimous decision rendered around 6 p.m. Saturday, the CIRB ordered employees of Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) to return to work at midnight and one minute on August 26, until the mandate of the arbitrator who will be tasked with deciding on a new collective agreement has ended.

In the meantime, the collective agreement that expired on December 31 between the unionized workers and the two companies will be extended until the conclusion of the arbitrator’s mandate.

In its decision, the CIRB declined to rule on the validity of the directives of Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, on the grounds that this is more appropriate for a tribunal such as the Federal Court. Given the urgency of the situation, the CIRB wanted to rule as quickly as possible and plans to make public the reasons for its decision in the coming days.

Fearing the disastrous consequences of the shutdown of rail transport in the country, Minister MacKinnon used the powers granted to him by the Canada Labour Code on Friday to demand a resumption of activities by the two railway companies and impose binding arbitration on the various parties.

Freight shipments and some major commuter rail lines across Canada were paralyzed when CN and CPKC locked out workers after months of increasingly acrimonious contract negotiations failed to produce a deal. It was the first time there had been simultaneous work stoppages on the railways.

The conflict brought a rail network of more than 35,000 km from coast to coast to coast to a standstill. The value of goods that pass through CN and CP railcars, based in Montreal and Calgary respectively, is approximately $1 billion, according to the Railway Association of Canada.

The pressure for rapid action was considerable, coming not only from across the country but also from the United States, Canada’s largest trading partner, which was concerned about the negative impact on its economy.

With The Canadian Press