Canadian rail union says it has filed lawsuits challenging back-to-work orders

The union that represents workers at both of Canada’s largest freight railroads has filed the lawsuits it promised challenging the orders that forced employees back to work and got the trains moving again, the union announced Friday.

The lawsuits were filed late Thursday afternoon, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference said. But they won’t stop the trains because the government had ordered the union to stay on the job while the arbitration process plays out.

“The right to collectively bargain is a constitutional guarantee. Without it, unions lose leverage to negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for all Canadians,” the union’s president, Paul Boucher, said Friday. “We are confident that the law is on our side, and that workers will have their voices heard.”

CPKC declined to comment Friday on the lawsuits. Canadian National did not immediately respond.

The lockouts stopped traffic in Canada on the crucial railroads this month and halted shipments to and from the United States, cutting off delivery of raw materials, along with shipping of finished products from factories and to retail shelves. The lockouts lasted a little over a day at Canadian National and four days at CPKC.

The union doesn’t want to let the precedent stand that the government can block a strike and take away a union’s leverage in negotiations. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government stepped into the contract dispute after both Canadian National and CPKC locked out their workers Aug. 22 because of fears about the widespread economic consequences of letting the trains, on which so many businesses rely, remain parked.

Trudeau defended the action this week and said he had been reluctant to intervene but saw no other option because of the railroads’ importance to the economy.

In each of the four appeals the union filed, the Teamsters asked the Federal Court of Appeal to quash the orders that Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon and the government arbitrator issued for both railroads and declare that they didn’t have the power to block a strike. The union’s lawyers demanded “a declaration that the infringement is not a reasonable limit as prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

The union asked the court to expedite a ruling, but it wasn’t clear if that would be approved. Teamsters spokesperson Christopher Monette said he couldn’t predict whether there would be a strike if the union wins in court because it would depend on the details of the decision and the status of any agreements with the railroads.

The nearly 10,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers the Teamsters represent at both railroads couldn’t reach an agreement over a new contract despite negotiations dragging on for nearly a year. The talks deadlocked over the railroads’ efforts to switch to an hourly based pay and scheduling system instead of the current mileage-based system. The union worried the changes the railroads proposed would erode their hard-fought protections against fatigue and make their jobs less safe.

Canadian National and CPKC have said they offered raises in line with other recent rail industry deals. CN said its engineers make about CA$150,000 a year, while its conductors earn CA$121,000. CPKC said its pay is comparable.

At CN, there was also a dispute over its effort to expand its system of temporarily relocating workers to other regions when there are staff shortages. The union didn’t want CN to have the power to disrupt families, but the railroad said the system is voluntary and is already in place in some areas.

The union challenged the order from MacKinnon that sent the dispute into arbitration and the Canada Industrial Relations Board decision Saturday that forced them back to work. MacKinnon didn’t immediately respond to questions about the lawsuits.

Canadian National got moving again the morning of Friday, Aug. 23, after being idle for more than a day, but CPKC railroad wasn’t able to resume operating its trains until Monday, when the order took effect.

Any kind of prolonged disruption to rail shipments can cause significant problems. Chemical companies had said they might have to slow down or stop production. Water treatment plants worried they could run out of chlorine. Ports and other railroads said shipments would start to pile up if CPKC and Canadian National remained idle.

The U.S. and Mexican operations of Canadian National and CPKC continued operating, but the stoppage was still a major disruption on both sides of the border.

The two major railroads deliver more than CA$1 billion (US$730 million) worth of shipments a day and carry billions of dollars of goods between the U.S. and Canada every month. 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.

A similar rail contract dispute in the United States two years ago — over quality-of-life concerns related to demanding, unpredictable schedules and the lack of paid sick time — ended when Congress and the administration of President Joe Biden stepped in to block a strike at the last minute.