This story originally appeared on Trains.com.
OTTAWA, Ontario — The Canada Industrial Relations Board has affirmed the decision by Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon to end the work stoppages at Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City, requiring the railroads to resume operations and to impose binding arbitration between the railroads and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference to resolve new contract terms.
Operations are to resume by 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 26, while the labor contract that expired on Dec. 31, 2023, is extended until a new agreement is completed. The start of the arbitration process will begin with a meeting with the CIRB on Thursday, Aug. 29, at 11 a.m. ET.
In response to the decision this evening (Saturday, Aug. 24), the union has said it will comply, but will also appeal the CIRB ruling to federal court.
“This decision by the CIRB sets a dangerous precedent,” TCRC President Paul Boucher said in a statement. “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. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today.”
A statement from Canadian National says the railroad will comply with the order. “While CN is disappointed an agreement could not be reached at the bargaining table,” the statement reads, “the company is satisfied that this order effectively ends the unpredictability that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months.”
CPKC also said it would comply and was ending the lockout it imposed on Aug. 22. The railroad’s statement said it was asking TCRC workers to return to work for the day shift on Sunday, Aug. 25, “so that we can get the Canadian economy moving again as quickly as possible and avoid further disruption to supply chains.” CPKC said the CIRB ruling “ends months of unnecessary uncertainty and disruption” for the economy, but also cautioned that it will take “several weeks” for the rail network to fully recover and “a period of time beyond that for supply chains to stabilize.”
The CIRB, in a pair of decisions — one addressing each railroad — said it determined it “does not have the authority to review the minister’s directions or to assess their validity,” saying that is a matter for the courts, and that it further “has no discretion for ability to refuse to implement, in whole or in part, the minister’s directions or to modify their terms.”
MacKinnon had announced his decision to send the matter to arbitration on Thursday, Aug. 22 — about 17 hours after both railroads locked out members of the TCRC. But rail operations remained in limbo as CPKC awaited the board’s ruling before advancing its plans to restart operations and the union kept its picket lines up at that railroad in the interim. CN ended its lockout on Thursday at 6 p.m. and the union originally said it would return, but then issued a strike notice effective at 10 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 26, while it awaited the CIRB action, saying the move was intended to “pressure CN into negotiating an agreement.”
CN’s statement notes that the CIRB ruling prohibits any further labor stoppage during the arbitration process, and therefore voids the TCRC strike notice.
MacKinnon, in a post this evening on social media site X, said he expected the railroads and employees to “resume operations at the earliest opportunity.”
— Updated at 6:10 p.m. with details from CIRB rulings; updated at 6:20 p.m. with CN comment; updated at 6:40 p.m. with CPKC comment.