Not long after the national rail strike got underway last week, the Canadian government stepped in and ordered union members to return to work, bringing an end to the walkout.
The government has forced the railway and unions into binding arbitration, which should see the dispute resolved by an independent judge or party, to avoid any damage to North American economies.
The intervention came just 18 hours after workers had stopped last Thursday. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union (TCRC) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City union (CPKC) have both reluctantly complied with the ruling and instructed their workers to return yesterday.
With the railways being out of action for a few days, there will still be some disruption to rail freight movements through Canada and we could witness some backlogs and/or congestion.
Ocean freight services will also take some time to get back to normal, as steamship lines had already been scheduling vessels away from Canadian ports ahead of the strike.
Large volumes of ocean freight move by rail within Canada and cross border to and from the US. Therefore, disruption from a prolonged closure of the rail network could have had a devastating impact on North American trade.
The team at Global Freight Services are monitoring developments closely.
