Binding arbitration imposed by Ottawa | Teamsters union challenges decision before Federal Court of Appeal

(Ottawa) The Trudeau government’s decision to impose binding arbitration to end the labour dispute that paralyzed the country’s two railway companies last week violates workers’ rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, argues the Teamsters union.

Moving from words to action, the union representing some 9,300 workers at Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) has formally filed appeals challenging this decision before the Federal Court of Appeal.

In all, the union has filed four separate appeals before the court, challenging Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s directives issued last Thursday and the Canada Industrial Relations Board’s (CIRB) decisions to ratify them on Saturday. In all of these legal actions, the Teamsters union claims, among other things, that workers’ rights guaranteed by the Charter have been violated.

“Without this right, unions lose the leverage needed to negotiate better wages and safer working conditions. We are convinced that the law is on our side and that workers’ voices will be heard,” he also said.

In one of the filings, lawyers representing the union are asking the Federal Court of Appeal to rule that the Minister of Labour simply exceeded his authority by issuing directives that included imposing binding arbitration.

In addition, they argue that these directives infringe on the right of association guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and do not constitute a reasonable limit in a free and democratic society. Because of these violations of the Charter, the minister’s directives must be invalidated by the courts, argue the union’s lawyers, as must the decisions of the CIRB to approve them.

In its action, the union also asks the court to force the government to pay it a compensatory amount that it deems appropriate in the circumstances. It also invited the court to look into this matter as soon as possible.

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

Each side accused the other of not negotiating seriously. Wages and hours were among the main sticking points.

In a unanimous decision issued Saturday, the CIRB implemented the minister’s demands. Union members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) were therefore forced to return to work at midnight and one minute on August 26, and until the mandate of an arbitrator – who will have to rule on new collective agreements – is completed.

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.

The labour dispute comes as the Trudeau government, the Conservative Party, the NDP and the Bloc Québécois are steadily courting unions and unionized workers some 12 months before the start of the next election campaign. A federal election is scheduled for October 2025.

Among other measures, the Trudeau government passed, at the request of the NDP, an anti-scab law. The Bloc Québécois obviously supported this measure, but the Conservative Party’s support for such a law caused a great surprise in the business world.