Canadian Pacific (CP) locked out its employees at midnight on Sunday after no progress was made with its unionized staff in the negotiations surrounding the renewal of their collective agreement.
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• Read also: Three days away from a Canadian Pacific lockout
The company announced its decision on Wednesday to trigger a lockout if no agreement was reached by then or if the two parties did not agree to appoint an arbitrator to settle the dispute.
“After a pandemic, the explosion in food and product prices, the war in Ukraine, the rail carrier adds a layer of insecurity among Canadians, particularly those who depend on the rail network,” lamented the Teamsters union, early Sunday morning.
“We are very disappointed with the turn of events. (…) It is the CP which declared the lockout planned for this evening, when we were ready to continue the negotiations ”, for his part reacted Dave Fulton, spokesperson for the CFTC by press release.
The Teamsters union, which represents some 3,000 CP railway workers, assures that its members “were ready to explore this type of arbitration, but did not manage to agree with the employer”.
“Members are already outside at various CP rail yards across the country and will be picketing all night,” it also said.
The employer and the union cannot agree on the issue of wages and pension plans.
This labor dispute brings back memories of the strike at Canadian Nation in 2019, which paralyzed deliveries of several products and caused a shortage of propane in Quebec.