The Canada International Relations Board (CIRB) issued an order imposing binding arbitration between the two sides. The CIRB also ordered that no rail work stoppage, whether a lockout or strike, can occur during the arbitration process. As a result, work has resumed on both the Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) networks as of Monday morning, August 26.
While railroad workers have returned to the job, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has vowed to challenge the ruling in court. 鈥淥f course, it鈥檚 preferable for the two parties to have the latitude to arrive at an agreement themselves,鈥 says Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition. It’s appropriate that the federal government intervened on behalf of the country and all those, like U.S. agriculture, that depend on a predictable, reliable cross-border supply chain. 鈥淲e look forward to a return to normalcy very soon,鈥 says Steenhoek.