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A Tuesday report from Anderson Economic Group, a Michigan research firm that has expertise estimating the economic impact of work stoppages, said a three-day strike would cause $300 million (407 million Canadian dollars) of economic damage, while a seven-day strike would bring losses to more than $1 billion (1.4 billion Canadian dollars).
A shutdown of only a few days would limit the economic impact but still cause problems, said Kristin Dziczek, policy advisor in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s research, policy, and public engagement division.
“It will take weeks to unwind the problems caused by a shutdown of even a few days because things will end up not where they’re supposed to be,” she said.
And because of the risk of a work stoppage, both railroads stopped taking shipments of various hazardous materials last week so that those items would not be stuck on trains unable to be delivered. That is already causing some disruptions, according to John Drake, the US Chamber’s vice president of transportation, infrastructure, and supply chain policy.
“We’re already hearing from businesses not seeing their shipments move,” he said.
Spokespeople for the railroads said management needed to move ahead with the lockdown plans because they couldn’t wait for the union to spring a strike on them with only the 72 hours of notice that is required by Canadian law.
“We can’t shut down a rail network by just flipping a switch,” Jonathan Abecassis, spokesperson for Canadian National, told CNN Wednesday ahead of the lockout. “We needed to start a safe and secure shutdown.”
Canada does not have the same railroad labor law as the United States that would allow Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to block a strike or lockout while a panel weighs the demands of the two sides and makes recommendations. That’s what happened in 2022 when President Joe Biden and Congress each took action to prevent a strike by 13 rail unions spread across the four major US railroads.
Canadian Labor Minister Steve MacKinnon met with the union and management negotiators in recent days in an unsuccessful effort to reach a deal. He has the power to refer the matter to binding arbitration, a solution sought by the railroads and opposed by the unions. But so far, the Trudeau administration has rejected that option.
