Back-to-work order issued for 2 major Canada railroads. Union will comply, but lawsuit planned

TORONTO — The Canadian arbitrator appointed to resolve a messy railroad labor dispute to protect the North American economy has ordered employees at the country’s two major railroads back to work so both can resume operating. But Canadian Pacific Kansas City likely won’t be able to restart its operations before 12:01 a.m. Monday, when workers were ordered to return. Railroads play a crucial role in the economy with CPKC and CN delivering more than CA$1 billion (US$730 million) worth of shipments a day and carrying billions of dollars of goods between the U.S. and Canada every month. The Teamsters union representing workers said that it will comply with the Canada Industrial Relations Board order and send its members back on the job, but it will also move forward with a legal challenge of the arbitration order. 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,” said Paul Boucher, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents more than 9,000 engineers, conductors and dispatchers at both railroads. Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon order the lockouts to end just over 16 hours after they began because government officials couldn’t bear to watch the economic disaster unfold if the railroads remained shut down. Businesses all across Canada and the United States said they would quickly face a crisis without rail service because they rely on freight railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. CPKC workers have been on strike since the lockout began early Thursday, and the railroad’s trains have remained idle. “While CN is disappointed an agreement could not be reached at the bargaining table, the company is satisfied that this order effectively ends the unpredictability that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months,” the railroad said in a statement. “CN remains focused on safely getting goods moving again, as efficiently as possible.” CPKC officially ended its lockout after Saturday’s decision and asked workers to return for the day shift Sunday. But union spokesman Christopher Monette said workers who have been on strike won’t be going back to CPKC before the Monday deadline in the order. CPKC said it wants to “get the Canadian economy moving again as quickly as possible and avoid further disruption to supply chains.” The railroads said it could take several weeks to fully recover because they began gradually shutting down their networks more than a week ago, leaving shipments stranded on customer loading docks and at ports across the country. The previous contract, which expired at the end of last year, will remain in force while the arbitration process proceeds, and the board ordered the unions not to disrupt operations further while that unfolds. The railroads said doing that would make it easier to provide predictable time off, but the union resisted over worries that the changes could erode important fatigue protections and jeopardize job safety. The union didn’t want CN to have the power to disrupt families, but the railroad said the system is voluntary and is already in place in some places. At the same time that the Canadian railroads have been struggling to reach agreements with their union, major U.S. railroads have made a flurry of deals in recent days. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/canadian-arbitrator-orders-employees-2-major-railroads-back-113126995