West Coast Express back on the rails as feds order binding arbitration

There might be delays on the tracks and an appeal in court, but the West Coast Express is set to start rolling again Monday morning.

The train is slated to resume its normal schedule but service could be delayed due to a freight traffic backlog, according to a statement from TransLink.

Asked for specifics about those delays, a company representative explained they wouldn’t know for sure until Monday morning. Updates are available on TransLink’s Transit Alerts page.

With no deal reached earlier this month, Canadian Pacific Kansas City, the company that owns the rails, announced plans to lock out Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union workers by Aug. 22.

According to reporting from CBC, the union disagreed with CN and CPKC over several issues including shifts being extended from 10 to 12 hours.

The union has been negotiating to protect rail safety and to: “prevent CN from forcing workers to relocate thousands of kilometres away from their families,” according to a statement from the Teamsters.

On Thursday, CN Rail and CPKC began a lockout while approximately 9,000 TCRC workers went on strike.

The parties previously agreed that no services had to be maintained in the event of a strike or lockout.

Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon also previously opted not to intervene in the dispute, writing that the company and the union had a “shared responsibility” to negotiate in good faith toward a new collective agreement, according to a CBC report.

However, after concluding the two parties were at a “fundamental impasse,” MacKinnon directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final binding arbitration and extend the current deal.

While the union announced it would comply with the decision, TCRC president Paul Boucher promised to appeal in federal court, warning that the move set 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. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today,” Boucher stated in a release.

A rail shutdown would have led to massive losses in nearly every sector of Canada’s economy, MacKinnon said at a press conference over the weekend.

A strike would have impacted commuters and disrupted supply chains, including exports to the United States, resulting in: “an act of economic self-sabotage,” he told reporters.

Asked about the dearth of competition in the rail sector, MacKinnon acknowledged there has been “extensive consolidation continent-wide,” but said, as labour minister, he wasn’t prepared to speak about “industry structure.”