For the first time ever, freight traffic on Canada’s two largest railways has simultaneously ground to a halt.
Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City overnight locked out 9,300 workers after failing to reach a contract agreement with the Teamsters union before a midnight deadline.
The impasse that is idling engineers, conductors and yard workers threatens to upend supply chains trying to move forward from pandemic-related disruptions.
They haul a combined one-billion dollars in goods per day, including grain and fuel.
Select commuter lines are affected as well in Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto for certain routes that use now-idled C-P tracks.
The regional transit service for southern Ontario’s Greater Golden Horseshoe region says rail service has been suspended at two stations in Hamilton and Milton.
GO Transit says its service “may be busier than usual” as a result of the work stoppage.
Commuters in Montreal and Vancouver are expected to be impacted as well.
Business groups had urged the government to intervene, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has declined to force both sides into arbitration yet
