Canada Forces Arbitration in CN and CPKC Rail Labor Dispute, Ending Lockout

Freight trains are expected to start rolling again soon in Canada after the government forced Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), the country’s two major railroads, into arbitration with their labor union Thursday, The Associated Press reported (9:27 PM, 8-22-24).

The government’s action came more than 16 hours after CN and CPKC locked out workers over a labor agreement impasse. Both railroads said they would work to get trains moving again as soon as possible.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon announced the decision to order the arbitration at a news conference Thursday. MacKinnon said he expects the trains will resume moving within days. Ending the lockouts is the first step.

The arbitration process was moving quickly, with the railroads meeting with the Canada Industrial Relations Board on Thursday night, a source told The Associated Press. The Teamsters confirmed that the union was also meeting with the board Thursday night.

All of Canada’s freight handled by rail—worth more than C$1 billion (US$730 million) a day and adding up to more than 375 million tons of freight last year—stopped Thursday along with rail shipments crossing the US border. CPKC and CN’s trains continued operating in the US and Mexico during the lockout.

Updated August 23rd at 9:30 AM