TORONTO (ICIS)–Canada’s federal labor minister has decided to refer the labor dispute between the country’s two freight railroads and labor union Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) for binding arbitration, he said in a webcast media briefing on Thursday.
Steven MacKinnon expects the CIRB to act “with dispatch” and rail services at railroads Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), which shut down effective Thursday morning, 00:01 eastern time, should resume within a couple of days, he said.
With the decision, the minister reversed his previous position.
Just hours before the shutdown took effect, he had said the government would not intervene but leave it to the parties to settle the dispute through the collectives bargaining process, and last week he rejected CN’s call for binding arbitration.
Published by: www.icis.com
Stefan Baumgarten
22-Aug-2024
