Two major freight railroads in Canada have shut down operations and could affect economic issues to not only Canada itself, but the US as well.
Nearly 10,000 employees consisting of conductors, dispatchers, engineers, train and yard workers and traffic controllers are in a contract dispute with the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern (CPKC), who locked them out after they failed to make a deal with the Teamsters Union.
Thousands of trains with about 40,000 carloads of goods valued at $730,000,000 worth of trade that pass through those tracks daily are at a stop.
Workers and the railroad companies are currently at an impasse. Workers don’t want the railroads to be able to relocate them against their will and take on longer working shifts. The companies are saying they are within Canadian law.
Goods included in the lockout are agricultural goods, automobile parts, cars, chemicals, chlorine, coal, construction materials, fertilizer, forestry and mined products.
If this impasse and lockout continue only a few days, it shouldn’t cause many problems, but if it lasts for a long period of time, it could surmount into bigger issues.
By - FZ
Comments