Metrolinx says it will keep customers updated ahead of next week, as developments unfold in a labour dispute at two of Canada’s largest railways.
Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City locked out more than nine-thousand workers on Thursday morning, bringing freight traffic and commuter rail service to a grinding halt in major cities across the country.
On Thursday evening C-N said it had ended its lockout and its trains began to move again Friday morning, even as the Teamsters union issued a 72-hour strike notice against the railway that same morning.
A spokesperson for Metrolinx promised an update for the more than eight-thousand Go Transit riders on the Milton line and the Hamilton GO station that have been affected by the shutdown over the last two days.
Workers will be on strike at 10 am ET on Monday, the union said.
The strike notice came after CN said in a statement that they were ending the lockout, in response to federal government’s decision to impose binding arbitration in the ongoing labour dispute.
“By sidestepping the collective bargaining process and ordering binding arbitration, the federal government has undermined the foundation on which labour unions work to improve wages and working conditions for all Canadians. Bargaining is also the primary way our union fights for rail safety—all considerations that outweigh short-term economic concerns,” said TCRC President Paul Boucher said in a statement.
The statement said the CIRB is yet to make a final ruling on whether it would force binding arbitration or end any work stoppage.
In its statement on Thursday, CN said, “As CN awaits the formal order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB), the Company is making this decision to expedite the recovery of the economy.”
With files from Global News’ Uday Rana