The impending Canadian rail workers’ strike has already started affecting fertilizer shipments, Fertilizer Canada said in a statement Tuesday.
On Friday, Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. warned they will lock out employees on Aug. 22 unless they can reach deals with the unions, lending new weight to the threat of a work stoppage that could snarl supply chains countrywide.
Fertilizer Canada said the threat of work stoppages has already started to impact the movement of fertilizers and added that they are expecting further embargoes and slowdowns in rail services.
“A work stoppage that prevents the transportation of fertilizer will have potentially disastrous effects on crop yields and food security,” Fertilizer Canada said in a statement.
According to the group, 75 per cent of Canada’s fertilizer supply is moved via rail.
The statement called on the federal government and Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to broker a deal between CN, CPKC and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) to avoid further disruptions.
“The long-lasting and cascading impacts of labour disruptions are felt before and after the stoppage even takes place,” Karen Proud, president and CEO of Fertilizer Canada, said in a statement.
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“We have had the threat of a work stoppage hanging over our heads since the beginning of the year. Farmers around the world rely on Canada’s fertilizer industry to maximize crop yields, and the fertilizer industry relies on rail to get our products to market.”
Proud said this would hurt Canada’s reputation as a supplier of fertilizer and give an edge to its competitors, like Russia and China.
The TCRC, which represents some 9,300 engineers, conductors, yard workers and rail traffic controllers, claimed that CPKC wants to “gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions.”
CN has targeted fewer points linked to fatigue, the Teamsters said, but has also proposed what the union called a “forced relocation scheme” that would see some employees move to far-flung locations for several months at a time to fill labour gaps.
“From the very beginning, railworkers have only ever sought a fair and equitable agreement. Unfortunately, both rail companies are demanding concessions that could tear families apart or jeopardize rail safety,” Teamsters president Paul Boucher said in a statement Friday.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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