After five months of negotiations between Canadian National (CN) Rail and its employees represented by Unifor, Unifor President Jerry Dias has announced the union will be commencing strike votes at CN as of early next week. The union, which represents approximately 4,800 CN employees, will be setting a strike deadline close to the end of March with no firm date set.   

According to a release by the Journal of Commerce (JOC), “Two days after a short-lived strike at Canadian Pacific Railway came to a close Monday, the possibility of a worker walkout began to gain momentum at CN, the single largest railway in Canada. A strike would not hurt only Canadian shippers, but also U.S. shippers that have increasingly re-routed cargo through Canadian ports, namely Port Metro Vancouver and Port of Prince Rupert, to avoid West Coast port congestion.”

While CN clarifies they proposed “a three-year agreement, with three per cent wage increases in each year and benefit improvements fully in line with what the company negotiated recently with the United Steelworkers, Teamsters Canada locomotive engineers, and the Teamsters Canada-Rail Canada Traffic Controllers,” Unifor was not receptive to the suggested settlement.

Expeditors will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates as they occur. Please contact your local Expeditors office for specific questions and concerns.

The JOC press release can be accessed here

CN’s news release can be found here

A press release by Unifor can be accessed here