Canada tells rail companies, union to work harder to avert crippling stoppage
Adds comment from minister's office
By David Ljunggren and Promit Mukherjee
OTTAWA, Aug 19 (Reuters) -Canada's labor minister will meetwith the country's two main railway companies and the Teamsters union in Montreal on Tuesday and Calgary on Wednesday to try to averta crippling rail transport stoppage.
Unless labour agreements are reached, both Canadian National Railway CNR.TO and Canadian Pacific Kansas City CP.TO will shut all freight rail services in Canada at the same time early on Thursday for the first time in history.
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon's office said on Monday evening he will urge the companies and union "to fulfill their responsibility to Canadians, reach agreements at the bargaining table, and prevent a full work stoppage."
Canada - the world's second-largest country by territory - relies heavily on CN and CP to ship food grains, fertilizers and other commodities, along with manufactured goods such as chemicalsand automobiles. The country's main business lobby group said it estimates losses would hit C$1 billion ($733 million) a day in case the rail stoppages proceed.
Federal mediators are working with the companies and the union, but those involved in the discussion say little progress has been made. The union says CN Rail and CPKC want to dilute safety provisions, a charge the companies deny.
MacKinnon has the power to force the union and railway companies into binding arbitration, but has so far said he wants them to sort out their differences at the negotiating table.
In a statement on Monday, the left-leaning New Democratic Party called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to not intervene in the labour disputes. Trudeau's government is being kept in power by the New Democratic Party, which has traditionally enjoyed strong union support.
Labourtalks started early this year, but progress has been slow, with both the union and the companies accusing each other of bad faith.
CN Rail and CPKC have already stopped accepting shipments of hazardous goods and have begun phased shutdowns of operations in Canada.
Maersk said on Monday it would stop accepting some Canada-bound shipments.
Separately, U.S. freight forwarder C.H. Robinson CHRW.O, said on Monday it was diverting some of its U.S. customers' ocean cargo away from Canadian ports as the threat of a rail strike looms.
"Both railroads simultaneously being out of commission would paralyze the ports and put instant pressure on trucking," the company said.
Canada is a major agricultural producer, and farmers will start bringing in their harvests in August and September.
Quorum Corp, which monitors grain handling and transportation, said daily volumes in early September would increase to 138,000 metric tons with a value of around C$75 million.
"After a period of time, sales will be lost and the value of Canada's grain will decrease ... the largest concern is a further degradation of Canada's reliability as a supplier, which is already suffering due to past labor disruptions," Quorum President Mark Hemmes said in an emailed statement.
Refrigerated containers with meat and some highly perishable produce are of particular concern because delays would likely mean spoilage. Shippers of such items have already begun holding back containers, said Peter Friedmann, an executive director at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.
In a statement, the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade warned a full work stoppage would drive up prices and exacerbate an affordability crisis in the country.
"Every facet of daily life would be impacted as our national economy grinds to a halt," it said.
($1 = 1.3641 Canadian dollars)
EXPLAINER-Why Canada is on the verge of an unprecedented rail labor stoppage nL1N3K60NG
FACTBOX-Key facts about Canada's biggest rail operators as massive work stoppage looms nL4N3K403C
Reporting by David Ljunggren and Promit Mukherjee in Ottawa; Additional reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago; Abhijith Ganapavaram and Abhinav Parmar in Bengaluru; Anna Paperny in Toronto and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Franklin Paul, Paul Simao, Jonathan Oatis and Lincoln Feast.
免责声明: XM Group仅提供在线交易平台的执行服务和访问权限，并允许个人查看和/或使用网站或网站所提供的内容，但无意进行任何更改或扩展，也不会更改或扩展其服务和访问权限。所有访问和使用权限，将受下列条款与条例约束：(i) 条款与条例；(ii) 风险提示；以及(iii) 完整免责声明。请注意，网站所提供的所有讯息，仅限一般资讯用途。此外，XM所有在线交易平台的内容并不构成，也不能被用于任何未经授权的金融市场交易邀约和/或邀请。金融市场交易对于您的投资资本含有重大风险。
所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。
本网站上由XM和第三方供应商所提供的所有内容，包括意见、新闻、研究、分析、价格、其他资讯和第三方网站链接，皆保持不变，并作为一般市场评论所提供，而非投资性建议。所有在线交易平台所发布的资料，仅适用于教育/资讯类用途，不包含也不应被视为适用于金融、投资税或交易相关咨询和建议，或是交易价格纪录，或是任何金融商品或非应邀途径的金融相关优惠的交易邀约或邀请。请确保您已阅读并完全理解，XM非独立投资研究提示和风险提示相关资讯，更多详情请点击 这里。
