Rail workers rally for better working conditions in Montreal as labour dispute halts trains
Rail workers gathered outside the Canadian National Railway (CN) headquarters in Montreal after negotiations between the Teamsters worker's union and CN as well as Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) collapsed.
Workers would have gone into work today had the rail companies not imposed a lockout Thursday night, public affairs director for Teamsters Canada Christopher Monette told Radio-Canada's Tout un Matin. The union had issued a strike notice to CPKC after the former had already sent its lockout notice earlier in August, he said.
Negotiations had been ongoing for nine months over wages, benefits and scheduling issues.
"You're on call basically 24/7," said Monette. "When you get the call, you have two hours to get to work and you don't know if you'll be back that same day, the next day or in two days."
He says members give over 80 hours weekly to their employers taking into account wait times and time spent in dormitories.
CN said it offered a last offer before Wednesday's midnight deadline but it was ultimately refused by Teamsters. The offer proposed hourly rates and scheduled shifts as well as higher wages.
Teamsters president François Laporte says they're ready to return to the bargaining table at any time.
"We don't want to see another Lac-Mégantic accident, we want people who operate the train — people who are not fatigued," he said. "In Montreal, downtown, for example, and everywhere across the country [you] see trains passing by carrying chemical products, energy, oil."
The labour stoppage has already been causing headaches for commuters and will have larger ripple effects on the distribution of goods. The rail companies haul a combined $1 billion worth of goods each day, according to the Railway Association of Canada.
The Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal says the federal government should recognize supply chains as an essential service and guarantee their proper functioning. The group says it's urging federal labour minister Steven MacKinnon to intervene and pass back-to-work legislation.
MacKinnon told CBC's Power & Politics Wednesday that it was the rail companies' and union's "duty to get a deal."
Canadian ports have expressed fears of container pile ups but those effects won't be felt by retailers until further down the line says Samuel Bouchard Villeneuve, director of public affairs for the Association des détaillants en alimentation du Québec, which represents food retailers.
"Our retailers will be the last to see the effects of the strike," he said.
The work stoppage will certainly have an impact on construction, according to Karine Casault, communications director with the Association des professionnels de la construction et de l'habitation du Québec. She says supply issues had just started to improve over the last year after the pandemic upheaval.
