Dangerous goods products and perishable cargoes have been blocked from travelling on Canadian railway routes recently, due to the ever-growing threat of a national rail strike.
The strike is set to impact rail freight movements in Canada from this Thursday, 22nd August. In a pre-emptive action, bookings have not been accepted for various dangerous goods products to avoid them being stranded on the railway during the indefinite walkout period, with refrigerated cargo also targeted.
Time is fast running out for an agreement to be reached between the Canadian National Railway and the TCRC and CPKC unions, following the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) effectively ruling the strike action as ‘legal’ under Canadian labour law on 9th August. The ruling also inserted a 13-day cooling off period before a strike could commence, which expires today.
All parties had been publicly showing a willingness to continue talks last week, which followed the Canadian Labour Minister insisting they “must get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table’. However, no obvious progress has been made and it is widely expected that the strike will proceed from tomorrow.
While the movement of dangerous goods have already been disrupted, there will inevitably be widespread disruption to all goods if a strike goes ahead, due to the significant volumes of ocean freight that moves by rail within Canada, and even cross border to and from the United States.
Evolution Group specialise in compliance and training services for dangerous goods packing and logistics movements, including DGSA services and online training. For further information please email info@evolutionforwarding.com or call 0800 4346244.
