Canada labor board orders rail employees back to work, imposes binding arbitration

Canada’s federal judge has issued an order to employees of the country’s two main railway companies. Back to workBinding arbitration was imposed after a work stoppage that halted cargo shipments since Thursday morning.

The Canadian Industrial Relations Board on Saturday approved the appointment of Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has requested arbitration, as well as an extension of expiring workers’ contracts, paving the way for the railway to resume operations starting Monday.

Canadian National Railway (New York Stock Exchange: CNI) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (NYSE: CB) shut down operations on Thursday after talks with the Teamsters Canada Rail Congress failed; after MacKinnon requested arbitration, CN trains started running early Friday, but CPKC workers went on strike, and the Teamsters issued a strike notice to CN this morning.

The Trucking Federation said it would abide by the board’s decision but plans to appeal the ruling in court, arguing that it “sets a dangerous precedent” and that “the rights of Canadian workers have been significantly curtailed.”

China Railway National Railways (CNI) said it was disappointed that no agreement was reached at the negotiating table, but was “satisfied that this effectively ends the uncertainty that has been negatively impacting supply chains for months.”

China Railway said it expects “it will take several weeks for the entire railway network to recover from this disruption and a period of time after that for supply chains to stabilize.”