{"id":1324,"date":"2019-11-19T15:26:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/en\/?p=1324"},"modified":"2019-11-19T15:26:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:26:10","slug":"the-boc-blast-338-cn-rail-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/the-boc-blast-338-cn-rail-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"The BOC Blast 338 – CN rail strike"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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CN Rail strike begins, threatening Canada oil, grain shipments<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

By: Thomas Black | Nov 19,\n2019 at 07:57 AM | Intermodal News  <\/p>\n\n\n

About 3,200 workers at\nCanadian National Railway Co. went on strike at midnight Tuesday, threatening\nto crimp shipments of oil, potash and grain across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n

Conductors and railyard\noperators at Canada\u2019s largest railway walked off the job after failing to reach\nan agreement with the company over issues including working conditions and drug\nbenefits, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union said.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, we were\nunable to reach a deal with CN,\u201d the union said in a statement. Workers have\nbeen without a contract since July and served a strike notice on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n

CN Rail is one of two main\nrail networks that Canada uses to ship consumer goods and exports of canola,\nwheat, potash and other resources from the prairies to seaports. The company\ncarries C$250 billion ($189 billion) worth of goods annually and has\nincreasingly been moving into shipping oil amid a bottleneck of pipelines from\nAlberta\u2019s oil sands.<\/p>\n\n\n

A representative for the\nMontreal-based company declined to immediately comment on the strike. On\nSaturday, it said it continued to negotiate in good faith and had offered to go\nto binding arbitration, which the union rejected.<\/p>\n\n\n

Managers may step in to\noperate trains, blunting the impact of any walkout. Allison Landry, an analyst\nwith Credit Suisse Group AG, said a walkout may crimp CN\u2019s cargo volume, the\nlabor action likely wouldn\u2019t last long and the impact on the company\u2019s earnings\nwouldn\u2019t be meaningful.<\/p>\n\n\n

\u201cHistorically, rail\nstrikes have lasted a few days, and the Canadian government has been quick to\nstep in and implement back-to-work legislation given the significant threat to\nthe economy,\u201d Landry said in a note to clients.<\/p>\n\n\n

Government Monitoring<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

Still, the government may\nhave less leverage to push for a resolution over the next couple of weeks\nbecause parliament isn\u2019t scheduled to convene until Dec. 5. That could delay\nthe adoption of back-to-work legislation until then.<\/p>\n\n\n

Canadian Labor Minister\nPatty Hajdu traveled to Montreal on Monday to meet representatives from both\nsides. In a Nov. 16 statement, Hajdu said the federal government is monitoring\nthe situation closely and \u201chas faith\u201d in the collective bargaining process.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Teamsters argue that\nworkers are being forced to operate trains alone from outside the locomotive\nwhile hanging on to moving trains with one hand and working a remote-control\ndevice in the other, creating a safety hazard. The union is also balking at a\nlifetime cap on prescription drug coverage and said the company is making it\nmore difficult to take time off and work longer hours.<\/p>\n\n\n

Canadian National fell 0.2% to close at C$123.76 in Toronto on Monday. It has gained 22% this year.<\/p>\n\n\n

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CN Rail strike begins, threatening Canada oil, grain shipments By: Thomas Black | Nov 19, 2019 at 07:57 AM | Intermodal News  About 3,200 workers at Canadian National Railway Co. went on strike at midnight Tuesday, threatening to crimp shipments of oil, potash and grain across the country. Conductors and railyard operators at Canada\u2019s largest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[507],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-boc-blast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bocintl.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}