CP Rail reports lower profits as Teamsters, IBEW serve 72-hour strike notice

On the labour dispute, Creel said he spoke with federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu and Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Wednesday morning and said they are hopeful a deal can be worked out to prevent a work stoppage that would hurt Canada’s economy.

“I’m remaining open-minded and optimistic as well but I also have to be a realist and we have to plan with our customers to make sure they have contingency plans,” he said.

“I hope that we do not have to execute our’s or their’s but certainly we’re taking steps as if we will.”

The railroad is seeking a fair and balanced contract with its workers, he said, adding CP Rail won’t sign a “bad short-term deal.”

Commodity shippers fear further disruptions in getting their products to market if the strikes go ahead.

“A strike would just be another nail in the coffin of another really bad year for shipping,” said Ron Bonnett, president of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture.

“All winter, the railways were only delivering about 40 per cent of the cars that were requested for shipping grain so there’s a tremendous backlog of grain in the system right now.”

He said some farmers are running short of cash because their crops aren’t being sold, adding the glut from a near-record crop last summer could last until next fall and cause problems with this year’s crop sales.

Rail shipping of grain has been better recently, but still not satisfactory, with shippers reporting Canadian National Railway supplied cars for 83 per cent of demand while CP Rail rated 53 per cent in the week of April 2-8, said Greg Northey, director of industry relations with Pulse Canada, a member of the Ag Transport Coalition.

A CP Rail work stoppage would also be “extremely detrimental” to the member companies of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada who rely on rail to ship about 80 per cent of their products, CEO Bob Masterson said in an open letter to Hajdu.

Hajdu said in a statement Wednesday she is calling on the unions and CP Rail to negotiate in good faith and arrive at an agreement.

Federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau said earlier this week the government is watching the situation because of its implications for grain and other commodity movements, but remains hopeful the bargaining process will result in a solution.

Both the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, representing about 3,000 CP Rail engineers and conductors, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, with about 365 signal and communications workers, cite a lack of progress at the bargaining table in issuing the strike notices.

Absent a negotiated settlement, the unions say their workers will walk out at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.

CP Rail said it presented the Teamsters with new three- and five-year agreement options on Monday and planned to present the IBEW with three- and five-year options on Wednesday.

The Teamsters union reached a tentative deal with CN Rail last month for a new contract for about 1,700 workers. CN’s IBEW members ratified an agreement in April 2017.

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Companies in this story: (TSX:CP, TSX:CNR)

Dan Healing, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version had inaccurate information about CN Rail’s IBEW contract.

by Canadian Press

CP Rail reports lower profits as Teamsters, IBEW serve 72-hour strike notice

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