Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says high inflation is to blame for the recent national railway strike.
More than 9,000 railway employees were ordered back to work at the beginning of this week after the Liberal government asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to impose binding arbitration on the railways and the union representing their employees.
“The reason that we have these strikes is because of inflation,” Poilievre said during an Aug. 29 press conference.
“Inflation leads to strikes because workers and unions have to fight to get back what they lost in purchasing power. Well, how did the inflation happen? The government doubled the debt.”
Contract negotiations between Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Canadian National Railway (CN) and their union broke down Aug. 22, leaving 9,300 employees locked out.
Canadian railways transport approximately $380 billion worth of goods annually, and 32,000 Canadian commuters rely on the rail system each day. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
said on Aug. 28 the railway shutdown had raised “serious public safety concerns” with shipments of essential items like propane for hospitals and chlorine for drinking water at risk, necessitating government action.
While the Teamsters union had requested higher wages, increased safety, and better work-life balance for workers, CN and CPKC said several offers they had made “in good faith” had been rejected by the union.
Poilievre noted 2023 had seen the largest number of days lost to strike since 1986, a year that also had high inflation in Canada.
According to Statistics Canada, 778 days were lost to strikes in 2023, compared with 748 in 1986.
More than 100,000 workers at the Public Service Alliance of Canada engaged in a
two-week strike in 2023 for higher wages, remote work, and enhanced work amenities. They managed to obtain an 11.5 percent wage increase over the next four years.
Canada’s
inflation rate rose to 8.1 percent in June 2022 before falling to 2.8 percent in June 2023. Inflation had been at 12.8 percent in June 1981 before falling to 3.8 percent in June 1986.
The
Bank of Canada increased its benchmark rate in response to rising inflation from 0.5 percent in March 2022 to 5 percent by June 2023. The
central bank has implemented two rate cuts over the summer in response to falling inflation, lowering its benchmark interest rate from 5 percent to the current 4.5 percent.
