'Rail is our lifeline': Businesses brace for possible CN/CPKC shutdown amid lockout-strike threats
CBC
To business executive Daniel Peretz, the possibility of a railway strike or lockout is more than a headline.
"The rail service is our lifeline," he said. "Without the rail service, we don't operate the business, we don't have 13 employees working here, we're unable to service a very important industry."
Peretz is president and CEO of NexGen Polymers, a plastics material transloading facility operating out of a rail-served warehouse and office space just east of downtown London, Ont.
Outside the building's brick walls, there's a series of railway sidings that together hold about 40 railcars. Each graffiti-covered rail car holds plastic pellets delivered to the site by petroleum companies from across North America and overseas.
Twice a week, a Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) crew comes to pull away about 10 empties from NexGen and replace them with loaded railcars.
The plastic pellets — each about the size of an unpopped popcorn kernel — come delivered to Peretz's site in various colours and grades.
The pellets are vacuumed out of the railcars and into storage tanks for testing, mixing and eventual delivery by truck for customers. The manufacturers Peretz sells to turn the pellets into products and packaging that Canadians see on almost every store shelf.
"Plastic water bottles, the overwrap for toilet paper — really every aspect of every component of what we purchase today is made from plastic, from industrial products, to food, to industrial to medical," he said.
A labour dispute at both Canadian National and CPKC threatens to derail not only Peretz's business, but the scores of manufacturers he supplies in a complex, just-in-time supply chain. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has said the lockout could be devastating for small businesses that depend on rail service.
Railways carry more than $1 billion worth of goods each day, according to the Railway Association of Canada, and over half of the country's exports travel by rail.
Contract talks between the Teamsters union and the companies usually take place a year apart, but in 2022, after the federal government introduced new rules, CN requested a year-long extension to its existing deal rather than negotiate a new one.
This meant both companies' labour agreements expired at the end of 2023 and talks have been ongoing since.
The companies and the union have accused each other of bad faith bargaining. The teamsters say CN Rail and CPKC are seeking concessions that could endanger worker safety, but both the operators deny that.
On Monday, the union representing thousands of workers at CPKC served a 72-hour strike notice to the railway. CN Rail issued a notice that it intends to lock out workers at that same time unless an agreement or binding arbitration is reached.
Timothy Smith was acting in self-defence when he punched Landon Waddell, and shouldn't be found guilty of manslaughter, his lawyer says.
Thoroughbred horse racing at Vancouver’s Hastings Racecourse is ending after more than a century, with the operator announcing Friday it will no longer run a racing season at the historic facility.
A memorial to remember lives lost to gender-based violence was held in Charlottetown Friday, ahead of the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, which is marked annually on Dec. 6.
A Calgary dentist who defrauded five insurance companies over a decade should spend up to three years in prison, the prosecution argued Friday.
B.C. Conservation Officer Service says it has called off its search for a bear responsible for an attack on a group of school children in Bella Coola, B.C. on Nov. 20.
The union president called it a rally for solidarity as Iqaluit Housing Authority employees gathered Friday while negotiations are ongoing between the Nunavut Employees Union and the employer.
The federal government is stoking Quebec separatism by walking back its climate commitments — including in its recent deal with Alberta — Liberal MP and former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault says.
Four more Alberta MLAs are facing recall petitions organized by their constituents, including the first NDP representative to be caught in the province's ongoing wave of recall efforts.
Frank Gehry, the Canadian-born renegade architect behind some of the world's most recognizable buildings, has died at 96.
Hundreds of P.E.I. parents can't find child-care spaces, especially for infants. The provincial government says expanding those spots remains a top priority — and it recognizes the concern.
An Alberta judge says a referendum proposal on Alberta separating from Canada goes against Charter and and Treaty rights, in a decision given less than 24 hours after the provincial government introduced legislation that would have ended the court proceeding.
The architect of Alberta's politician recall legislation says it was never meant to be used as a political weapon, but as an "ultimate tool of accountability" if a politician engages in illegal or unethical behaviour.
The Government of Saskatchewan has introduced its long-promised involuntary treatment legislation on the final day of the fall sitting.