Railway Labour Disruption Likely to Continue

An update from Richard Alexander, Executive Vice President, Government Relations & Public Affairs, Restaurants Canada

Restaurants and other foodservice operations should prepare for further supply chain disruptions as both Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railways remain at an impasse with their respective Teamsters Canada Rail Conference unions. Both CPKC and CN locked out employees after lengthy contract talks with employees failed to find agreements.

Yesterday, Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon referred the dispute between management and the unions to the Canadian Labour Relations Board (CLRB) for binding arbitration. While Minister MacKinnon does have the power under the Canadian Labour Code to refer the dispute to the board, the Supreme Court has previously ruled that the union’s right to strike is constitutionally protected, within limits.

Teamsters Rail Conference workers at CN took down picket lines on Friday and 6,500 employees returned to work, however, on Friday afternoon, the union said they will reimpose a strike deadline of Monday, August 30th at 10 am ET. 3,500 CPKC workers remain idle as their union pursues a constitutional challenge to the government’s action.

Restaurants Canada is one of several business groups welcoming the Labour Minister’s attempt to end the stoppages and we will continue to urge the government to do what is required to keep the trains running.

While Restaurants Canada supports the collective bargaining process, we remain firm that the potentially catastrophic effect on our industry due to supply chain issues is too great a price to pay for a complete railway work stoppage.

Currently 47% of foodservice businesses in Canada are either just breaking even or operating at a loss. The restaurant sector has still not fully recovered from supply chain issues and forced work stoppages imposed during the pandemic. Bankruptcies among restaurants hit an all-time high in 2024 as operators have been unable to withstand the cumulative economic blows of high food inflation, record increases in wages, rent and insurance hikes, and the ongoing escalation of taxation.

Regarding these latest developments, we continue to strongly advise foodservice operations to contact their suppliers to develop contingencies and consider flexible approaches to menus and ingredients until this dispute is resolved.