Teamsters launch court appeal of federal government’s move to end rail shutdown

The union representing thousands of railroaders has appealed the moves that ended the rail shutdown last week — a work stoppage that halted freight and commuter traffic across the country.

In filings to the Federal Court of Appeal, the Teamsters union challenged directives for binding arbitration issued to a labour board by federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon last week, less than a day after the lockout of 9,300 workers by Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.

In response to MacKinnon’s instructions, the Canada Industrial Relations Board ordered the country’s two major railways to resume operations and employees to return to their posts until binding arbitration could produce new contracts.

As well as the government directive, the union is also contesting the tribunal’s decisions.

Paul Boucher, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, says the actions set a “dangerous precedent” that threatens workers’ constitutional right to collective bargaining.

“Without it, unions lose leverage to negotiate better wages and safer working conditions for all Canadians,” Boucher said in a news release.

The railway companies, along with some industry groups, have said the minister’s move ended months of needless uncertainty and subdued supply chain turmoil after the Teamsters rejected requests for arbitration.

CN said arbitration is a neutral process “agnostic to outcome” and aimed at breaking an impasse.

“CN would have preferred a negotiated settlement,” said CN spokeswoman Ashley Michnowski in an email.

“However, after nine months of attempting to reach a settlement, it was evident that the Teamsters were not looking for a resolution and were happy to keep applying pressure by inflicting damage to the Canadian economy,” said CN spokeswoman Ashley Michnowski in an email.

MacKinnon made the back-to-work directive less than 17 hours after the lockouts — as well as a strike by CPKC’s employees, but not CN’s — took effect. He said the negotiations were at an impasse and Canadian businesses, job security and trade relationships were at stake.

Industry groups had been sounding the alarm for weeks over the economic consequences of a drawn-out shutdown. To ensure no freight would be stranded, CN and CPKC wound down their operations in phases, starting nearly three weeks ago.

Last week, traffic of cargo ranging from car parts to crude oil, consumer goods, grain and potash ground to a complete halt, temporarily upending supply chains.

More than 30,000 commuters in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver also found themselves unable to board passenger trains that run on CPKC-owned tracks.

The labour board’s Aug. 24 ruling requires railways to continue operations and workers to stay on the job until arbitration wraps up.

The union filed four separate appeals in a Toronto courthouse late Thursday afternoon that seek a judicial order “quashing” the minister’s directives and the labour tribunal’s decisions related to CN and CPKC.

The applications seek to render invalid those decisions as well the minister’s orders to the board, arguing that the latter were “ultra vires” — beyond the powers of his jurisdiction.

The court filing also says the directives and board decisions breached the union’s freedom of association enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

After an acrimonious few weeks, the union and railway officials are slated to meet next month for the first time since the work stoppage to discuss a timeline for binding arbitration.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 30, 2024.