Canada’s freight rail network is expected to shut down on Thursday if the country’s two largest railroad operators fail to reach labour deals with their more than 9,000 workers.
Canadian National Railway (CN) has threatened to lock out staff, while the Teamsters union has given strike notice to Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).
It would mark the first time the country has faced simultaneous work stoppages at the two companies, which in the past have negotiated labour deals in alternate years.
If ongoing talks fail to reach agreements, business groups and farmers have warned of costly disruptions to the Canadian economy.
CN and CPKC, with tracks from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts and south into the United States, carry an estimated $1 billion worth of goods daily, including grains and potash, cars and petroleum products, and timber.
US rail companies and overseas shippers have already stopped accepting some goods destined for Canada in anticipation of a disruption.
Canada’s Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon urged the two sides to “do the hard work necessary to reach agreements at the bargaining table and prevent a full work stoppage.”
Their failures, he added in a statement, “will be borne by all Canadians.”
CN has said, “No meaningful progress has occurred” over months of talks and “the parties remain very far apart.”
The company has sought to force the temporary relocation of workers to fill staff shortages in parts of Canada, which the union rejected.
The dispute with CPKC centers on safety issues related to rest periods for train crews.
