Canadian Railroads Ordered Back to Work

A back-to-work order was issued for two Canadian railroads that had gone on strike last week. The Union will comply, but a lawsuit is planned, reported AP News.

The Canadian arbitrator appointed to resolve the recent Canadian railroad labor dispute to protect the North American economy has ordered employees at the country’s two major railroads back to work for normal operations.

Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City saw most of their unionized workforce go back to work Monday

The back-to-work order came on Saturday and means Canadian National will be able to continue operating the trains it restarted Friday morning just more than a day after it locked out workers. But Canadian Pacific Kansas City wasn't able to restart its operations before 12:01 a.m. Monday, when workers were ordered to return.

A press release by Canadian Pacific Kansas City today said it was going to restart railway operations in Canada by 00:01 ET on Monday, Aug. 26, following the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) order requiring CPKC to resume operations and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) employees to resume their duties.

The railroad company said it would fully comply with the CIRB order and ended the lockout initiated on Aug. 22. CPKC asked the TCRC for employees to return to work for the day shift on Sunday so that we can get the Canadian economy moving again as quickly as possible and avoid further disruption to supply chains. 

Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said the union would work with other labor groups as it mounts a legal challenge to a Saturday decision that halted work stoppages at the country's two largest railways and imposed arbitration, Reuters reported.

CPKC and CN together deliver more than CA$1 billion (US$730 million) worth of shipments a day and carry billions of dollars of goods between the US and Canada every month.

Even though both companies’ trains in the US and Mexico continued operating, the lockouts caused a significant disruption. A number of smaller short-line freight railroads that handle local deliveries continued operating across Canada but were unable to hand off shipments to either of the major railroads while they were idle.