Federal strike powers follow shippers’ push to restrict port and rail walkouts

CALGARY — A western Canadian shippers’ group urged Ottawa to automatically classify some port and rail workers as essential before the federal government introduced a bill that would give the labour minister clearer authority to end work stoppages.The Western Canadian Shippers’ Coalition’s proposal appears in records obtained through access to information and detailed by journalist Peter Nowak, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. The records show the group pressed the government on labour disruptions; they do not establish that its submission caused the government to introduce Bill C-39.A federal briefing note says the Kelowna, BC, coalition recommended “immediate, automatic essential service designation for rail and port” based on economic thresholds. In a January 12 submission to Transport Canada, the group said repeated strikes had cost the country billions of dollars and pointed to approaching contract expiries involving the major railways and BC maritime employers..Hajdu says some unions support Bill C-39 as labour groups oppose strike powers.The coalition’s proposal would restrict strikes by workers designated essential. Bill C-39, introduced September 21, takes a different approach: it would amend the Canada Labour Code to set out when the federal labour minister may intervene in a dispute affecting the “national interest.”The proposed grounds include a significant impact on the economy or serious social disruption. The bill also calls for the minister to consider a special mediator’s report before acting. The government says the changes would place conditions on the use of an existing power. Labour leaders argue the bill would make it easier for Ottawa to end lawful strikes.Employers’ groups have long argued that port and rail shutdowns impose costs well beyond the bargaining table. At 2023 Commons trade committee hearings, Robert Ballantyne, then a senior adviser with the Freight Management Association of Canada, urged MPs to consider the effect of work stoppages on businesses and the public.Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association, told the committee that small businesses bear losses from strikes without compensation.The Canadian Chamber of Commerce also called for stronger federal intervention, with its then vice-president Robin Guy urging the government to bring parties together and secure a binding resolution before a stoppage.Those arguments now sit at the centre of the debate over Bill C-39: how far Ottawa should be able to intervene when a strike disrupts trade, and what that power would mean for workers’ bargaining rights.

Federal strike powers follow shippers’ push to restrict port and rail walkouts

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