OTTAWA – The federal labour board has ordered thousands of rail employees back to work after a bitter contract dispute shut down the country’s two major railways.
The decision from the Canada Industrial Relations Board imposes binding arbitration on the parties following an unprecedented work stoppage at Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City that halted freight shipments and snarled commutes across the country.
The ruling comes after Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon directed the arm’s-length tribunal on Thursday afternoon to begin the arbitration process, saying the parties were at an impasse and Canadian businesses and trade relationships were at stake.
The Teamsters union representing the roughly 9,300 affected workers challenged the government’s move, but on Saturday evening the board said it had no authority to decide whether the minister’s directive was valid.
“The board has concluded that, in this case, it has no discretion or ability to refuse to implement, in whole or in part, the minister’s directions or to modify their terms,” wrote chairwoman Ginette Brazeau in a pair of rulings.
Brazeau ordered the two companies and the conductors, dispatchers and yard workers concerned to resume operations starting at 12:01 a.m. on Monday.
On top of ending the lockout and simultaneous strike at CPKC, the ruling voids the 72-hour strike notice to CN the union issued on Friday morning.
Teamsters said it will comply with the tribunal’s decision but plans to appeal the ruling in court, arguing it “sets a dangerous precedent.”
“It signals to corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain and the federal government will step in to break a union,” said Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
“The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today,” he said in a release.
Canada’s largest railway said it aims to ramp up shipments as quickly as possible.
“Over the last nine months, CN negotiated in good faith to reach a deal at the table. The company consistently proposed offers with better pay, improved rest, more predictable schedules and a voluntary mobile workforce,” it said in a release.
“While CN is disappointed an agreement could not be reached at the bargaining table, the company is satisfied that this order effectively ends the unpredictability that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months.”
The labour board ruled that binding arbitration will kick off on Aug. 29.
Cargo traffic and some commuter lines across Canada came to a standstill on Thursday when CN and CPKC locked out workers after months of increasingly acrimonious contract talks failed to yield a deal.
 It marked the first time simultaneous work stoppages struck the railways.
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