North America - Uncertainty continues to swirl around a possible strike from rail workers in Canada, as negotiations between railroads Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas (CPKC) and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) have hit a wall.
 
The TCRC had originally voted in favor of a strike as soon as 22 May 2024 if a new collective bargaining agreement hadn't been reached by that date.
 
That was then pushed back indefinitely on 14 May 2024 after Canada labor minister Seamus O'Regan Jr. asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) for a review of potential impacts to critical shipments should a strike occur.
 
Since then, the TCRC says that it has sent the CIRB written submissions and attended a pair of in-person meetings, but has received no indication as to how long the process might take.
 
The TCRC expressed frustration with the open-ended timeline in a 11 Jun 2024 news release, noting that CN and CPKC have withdrawn from negotiations since the review began.
 
Moving forward, the union says it will conduct a new strike vote between 14-29 Jun 2024, promising a quick process.
 
In a release of its own, CN said that it is "no closer to a deal" with the union as of 11 Jun 2024, and that the lengthy CIRB review "is adding to the uncertainty" of the process.
 
Both CN and CPKC also rejected a recent bid from the TCRC to stagger negotiations with each railroad by two weeks.
 
While the union claims that spacing out the negotiations would minimize disruptions to the supply chain, CN asserted that it would unnecessarily drag out the process, instead pushing for an independent arbitrator to resolve the current impasse.
 
With the looming threat of a rail strike, ocean carriers are also already making preparations.
 
Maritime intelligence company eeSea says that there have been 14 scheduled sailings diverted away from Vancouver to U.S. West Coast ports from 10 Jun 2024 onward, to account for a possible work stoppage sometime this summer.
 
"Further delay of the strike action and government intervention mean an indefinite extension of measures taken by carriers to predict this impact, creating a persistent shadow of doubt on the weeks ahead," eeSea said in its latest trade overview.
 
Nick Bowman.