Although Canadian National (CN) Rail and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC-CTY) have been in negotiations for the past six months, they failed to reach an agreement by the November 19, 2019, deadline. \u00a0Christopher Monette, spokesperson for the Teamsters, advised yesterday that the strike will begin.\u00a0 The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC-CTY) represents about 3,200 CN employees working as train conductors and railyard coordinators in Canada. \u00a0Although CN deployed their qualified managers and engineers to run their train operations, they have determined they do not have enough qualified Canadian managers to maintain safe freight operations during the strike. <\/p>\n
Ocean carriers are closely monitoring the situation and customers are advised to ensure their truckers check the status of import containers prior to arrival at the terminals.<\/p>\n
The following is an excerpt from the CN Rail announcement to its customers and supply chain partners on November 20, 2019:<\/p>\n
As communicated yesterday, the TCRC-CTY has initiated strike action. Without our 3,200 conductors, we unfortunately have been forced to wind down our rail operations as we do not have sufficient qualified Canadian managers to safely maintain freight operations during this strike.<\/em><\/p>\n