The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced that it has lifted its picket lines at Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and that its workers will return to work this Friday.
However, the union said the work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) is continuing pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB).
After months of increasingly tense contract negotiations, Canada’s two largest railway companies have both locked out workers after failing to reach an agreement with the union by Thursday’s deadline.
The unprecedented work stoppage prompted federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to refer the dispute to the CIRB for binding arbitration. Despite this, there is no indication that the CIRB will order an end to the CPKC labour dispute.
The union and railway representatives met with the CCRI on Thursday. Another meeting is scheduled for this Friday at 10:00 a.m.
The CPKC said it was prepared to discuss the resumption of service at the meeting with the CCRI, but the union declined and wants to submit submissions to challenge the constitutionality of Mr. MacKinnon’s directive.
The labour minister has come under pressure from business groups, who have warned that the work stoppage would have economic consequences and urged Ottawa to resolve the dispute.
At a news conference Thursday, MacKinnon said the government is fully committed to collective bargaining, but said the impact of the work stoppage is being felt by all Canadians.
The minister said the government had given the negotiations “every possible chance of success.”
Each side accused the other of failing to negotiate seriously. The union argued it did not want binding arbitration because the issues were too important to leave to a third party.
The work stoppage affected not only supply chains across the country, but also tens of thousands of passengers in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver whose lines run on CPKC-owned tracks.
In the Montreal region, three of the Exo network’s train lines will remain suspended on Friday, namely those of Vaudreuil/Hudson, Saint-Jérôme and Candiac. Trains running on the CN network, namely the Mont-Saint-Hilaire and Mascouche lines, will maintain normal service.
Exo spokeswoman Catherine Maurice said the timing of the resumption of services remains unknown. “We are awaiting instructions from the CPKC before deciding on the terms and timing of the resumption of commuter train service,” she said Thursday.
Confused travellers were turned away from closed rail lines Thursday, and the agency responsible for GO Transit in Ontario said service would remain disrupted Friday on the Milton line and at Hamilton GO Station.
British Columbia’s regional carrier, TransLink, announced that West Coast Express service would also remain out of service Friday.
Via Rail said trains on its 480-kilometre Sudbury-White River line, which runs three times a week in northern Ontario, are cancelled until the work stoppage is resolved.
Affected commuter railways in Ontario and British Columbia also operate on CPKC-owned lines.
The CPKC said Thursday that further details on the timetable for resuming service would be provided once it received the order from the industrial relations board.