The Canadian Cattle Association (CCA) and the National Cattle Feeders’ Association (NCFA) express appreciation to federal Labour Minister Steven McKinnon for stepping forward to address the work stoppage of Canada’s Class 1 railways.
Through the Minister’s action of enacting Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code, the labour dispute will move to final binding arbitration through the Canadian Industrial Relations Board.
“The impacts from this rail strike stand to not only to impact the beef sector but our entire trading relationships. After discussions with our North American beef industry counterparts this week, we are pleased to see this move, to get the economy moving again and continue to the flow of goods with our trading partners,” stated Nathan Phinney, CCA President. “We continue to call on the government to deem agriculture and agri-food an essential service, so that there are not disruptions in the future.”
“We are grateful Canada’s trains will be moving again soon. The Canadian beef industry relies upon the timely delivery of cattle feed by rail to feed our national herd consisting of millions of animals. Cattle are on a very specific feeding schedule and the wellbeing of animals is at risk if there are even brief delays in feed delivery,” stated Janice Tranberg, NCFA President & CEO.
Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers after negotiations failed late yesterday.
CCA and NCFA encourage all parties involved to get trains moving again as soon as possible.
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