‘Terrible for the Whole Country’: Farmers Worried About Looming Rail Strike

A CN train moves cargo containers at the Centerm container port in Vancouver on July 14, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Darryl Dyck)

A dispute between Canada’s two main railway companies and their employees comes at the worst time for farmers in the nation’s agriculture sector who need to get their crops to market.

Both of Canada’s main railways—Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City—could go on strike or be locked out as early as Aug. 22 unless they reach new labour deals for their employees, represented by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union.

Gunter Jochum, president of the Wheat Growers Association who farms near St. Francois Xavier in Manitoba, just west of Winnipeg, said rail problems could waylay the payoff for bumper crops in the area.

“It’s not just terrible for grain farmers, I think it’s terrible for the whole country, because the railways move somewhere north of $380 billion worth of goods for Canada in a year. … And yes, it affects us in the worst way, especially at harvest,” Jochum told The Epoch Times.

Elevators fill up quickly when they can’t load cars with grains and cereals. Farmers aren’t paid for grain until the elevators can take it, and few have enough bin space for an entire harvest. The backlog can leave farmers with cash flow challenges and piles of grain left in the field where the weather can diminish their quality.

“We won’t get compensated for loss of income, so we may have to go to the banks for loans to tide us over. It’s just really bad. I can’t put any good spin on this,” Jochum said.

The main issues of contention between the railways and the union—which represents 9,300 engineers, conductors, yard workers, and rail traffic controllers—are scheduling, safety concerns related to fatigue, and salaries, among others.

“From the very beginning, rail workers have only ever sought a fair and equitable agreement. Unfortunately, both rail companies are demanding concessions that could tear families apart or jeopardize rail safety,” Teamsters president Paul Boucher said in a statement on Aug 9.

The rail companies don’t agree.

“None of CN’s offers compromised safety in any way,” the Montreal-based railway said in a press release on the same day.

“What we have proposed is that people can volunteer for relocation when there is a requirement based on availabilities,” said CN spokesman Jonathan Abecassis. “To say that this is tearing families apart is just not accurate.”

Both the Wheat Growers Association and the Western Grain Elevators Association (WGEA) have urged the rail companies, employees, and federal government to complete negotiations in good faith or submit to binding arbitration.

“For the grain sector, this rail strike is coming at the worst possible time of year, right before the start of harvest,” said WGEA executive director Wade Sobkowich in a news release on Aug. 12.

“The world needs Canada’s grain now more than ever, and it is unconscionable that anyone would leverage the current domestic and global circumstances to benefit their individual interests.”

Durum wheat is shown in a field at a farm near Gray, Sask., on July 29, 2021. (Kayle Neis/The Canadian Press)

Rail Services Deemed Not Essential

Teamsters’ members voted in favour of a strike mandate in April, but action by then-Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan set that aside. In May, he ordered the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to examine whether critical shipments, such as chlorine for water and gasoline for cities, constituted essential services the railways must deliver for the health and safety of Canadians.

Neither a lockout nor a strike was permitted until the CIRB decided Aug. 9 that rail services were not essential. Jochum disagrees with the decision.

“It becomes pretty essential when all of a sudden my livelihood is affected, right? Are farmers going to die because our grain doesn’t get moved? I doubt it. But could farmers default on some loans? Absolutely,” he said.

“They possibly could lose their farms if it’s a long enough strike, … so I'd say it’s pretty essential.”

Barry Prentice, a professor of supply chain management at the University of Manitoba, says railway service may not be essential in parameters considered by the CIRB, but they are in many others. For this very reason, he expects a resolution.

“The railways are too essential to allow a strike to follow through to its logical conclusion. The government will intervene. They just cannot not intervene. And both sides know this,” Prentice said in an interview.

“Most Canadians look at the railway and say, of course it’s an essential service. … Half the economy is at stake. How much more essential can it be?”

Working conditions seem more of a sticking point than wages for the Teamsters. Although the union has rejected the railways’ offers of binding arbitration, Prentice predicts the government will mandate it before the trains come to a halt.

“This is one of the issues that farmers have complained about for generations, is that they get used as a pawn in these battles,” he said. “The people who are trying to seek strategic advantage … seem to be all too willing to make the farmers the hostages in these negotiations.”

Fertilizer Shipments Already Affected

The job action is already affecting fertilizer shipments, as well as hazardous goods such as chlorine to disinfect drinking water and other toxic or poisonous substances and explosive materials.

On Aug. 12, the railways announced they would embargo shipments of ammonia fertilizer products until a labour agreement was reached. The premise was to prevent dangerous goods from being left stranded on railways.

Fertilizer Canada has called on the federal government to recognize fertilizer as an “essential good critical to domestic and global food security” that should continue to move during work stoppages.

“The long-lasting and cascading impacts of labour disruptions are felt before and after the stoppage even takes place,” Karen Proud, president and CEO of Fertilizer Canada, said in an Aug. 12 press release.

The organization also urged Ottawa to amend the Canada Labour Code to “strengthen the bargaining process” in order to prevent disruption in Canada’s supply chains.

An Abacus poll conducted in May and cited by Fertilizer Canada found that three-quarters of Canadians support this measure. Also, 79 percent said they believe products vital to domestic and global food security should continue to move during a work stoppage.

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.