Last August, we all witnessed a significant affront to democratic rights in the way the Liberal government interfered with the rail freight transportation industry negotiations.
For months, our TCRC members working as conductors, engineers, and rail traffic controllers at CN and CPKC were trying to negotiate their new collective agreements in good faith. Together, the two rail companies control nearly all rail freight transport in Canada, essentially acting as a duopoly.
For the first time in decades, both collective agreements were up for renewal at the same time. After months of bad faith negotiations, the companies worked together behind the scenes to deliberately and simultaneously stall both negotiations by gutting safety provisions and making unreasonable demands, pushing our members towards a strike, and setting the stage for the biggest crisis in the rail sector in Canada’s modern history.
It became evident that CN and CPKC were pressuring the government to intervene rapidly, usurping our democratic and constitutional right to strike under the pretext of “safeguarding” the economy. A very new Minister of Labour, Steve MacKinnon, quickly asked the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to impose binding arbitration on our members, effectively ending our ability to strike.
Since then, our members have been working under their previous collective agreements, which have been technically expired for nearly a year, awaiting the CIRB to dictate their new working conditions. On our end, we are contesting this whole process in court, but it’s impossible to know if our cases will be heard before the CIRB imposes new collective agreements.
We know this experience sets a troubling precedent. It suggests that workers in a federally regulated sector deemed “important” to the economy won’t be allowed to go to a strike.
Striking Is the Only Leverage Workers Have Left
Every negotiation is about a balance of power. In our economy, private corporations are naturally at an advantage and control the purse strings. Since employment is not guaranteed, and everyone needs a job to earn a living, these corporations hold an advantage when negotiating salaries and working conditions, often prioritizing profits and shareholders’ interests over workers’ wellbeing.
Even though it is always a last resort, a strike is the only leverage workers truly have to put pressure on a company in any meaningful way. By stopping work and withholding our labour and expertise, we can impact a corporation’s bottom line, and since it’s the only language most of them understand, bring them back to negotiate in good faith.
This is also why anti-scab laws are very important, so as not to undermine negotiations and the effective impact of a strike.
By usurping the ability to strike at CN and CPKC—a right recognized in our Charter—the government took away the only tool our members had left to bring these two multibillion-dollar corporations and their millionaire managers back to the table to negotiate in good faith.
The threat extends beyond our own union: more and more workers are facing the same fate. Canada cannot allow a system where a government agency imposes a binding contract on workers democratically organized into trade unions. The implications are too dire to brush off.
That’s why the Teamsters are currently challenging this dangerous decision in the courts, and why our politicians must remember that the wellbeing of workers and their families must outweigh the interests of a small group of multimillionaire investors. That is what’s good for the economy.
François Laporte
President of Teamsters Canada
Vice President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
Each month, François Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada, comments on the labour news cycle in a series of columns called Leading the Way. Join him as he discusses the issues facing Canadian workers from coast to coast.
