On Wednesday, February 11, 2015, the Canadian Pacific (CP) Railway announced that the union representing more than 3,000 of its locomotive engineers and conductors presented a strike notice for this upcoming weekend.  CP, Canada’s second largest railway, responded by advising that its managers will be ready to take over if workers walk off the job.

Freight that is bound for the US from Canada would see delays, potentially up to 5-7 days.  Even if managers load at the same speed, they won’t have the engineers to shunt cars and drive the trains; therefore, some freight could be delayed or held on spur lines until they have a crew to move them out.

Unifor, which represents 1,650 CP safety and maintenance staff, and the Teamsters have also been negotiating with the Canadian National Railway, the country’s largest railroad, but a strike deadline has not been announced there. Creel believes Canada’s federal government would step in if there were any possibilities of strikes at both railways.  The legislative solution could take 3-10 days to take effect after the government decides to step in.

We will continue to closely monitor this situation and advise you of any important updates.