The 12:01 AM deadline has been and gone with no resolution, and so about 9000 workers with Canada’s largest rail lines are now locked out as the labor dispute continues.
Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. have locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers after being unable to agree on a new contract. This lockout is the first of its kind in Canada for these two companies.
As the deadline approached, the two sides began facing calls from political leaders to get a deal done. Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he had called on Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon to warn him about the potentially devastating impact of a rail stoppage. At a press conference in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland called on the two sides to come to terms.
In addition to commercial rail, tens of thousands of commuters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, whose lines run on CPKC-owned tracks, now do not have access to their usual passenger trains as there are no traffic controllers to dispatch them.
According to a Canadian Press report, the two sides were still at the bargaining table late into the night Wednesday at hotels in Montreal and Calgary but broke off the talks shortly before midnight.
Affected industries include agriculture, mining, energy, retail, automaking and construction.
