The agriculture industry is bracing for a railway stoppage as CP Rail issued a 72 hour lockout notice to the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
The railway giving notice of its plans to lock out close to 3000 employees Sunday morning if the two sides can't come to an agreement on a new contract deal or binding arbitration.
The growing concern over a potential rail strike was part of the discussion at SARM yesterday.
As part of his presentation to the group Premier Scott Moe introduced a petition for signatures calling on Ottawa to take action.
"What the petition says is this. A petition to the Government of Canada. We the undersigned residents of the Province of Saskatchewan wish to bring to your attention the following. The looming rail disruption threatens the movement of goods through this country. The supply chain is already stressed and experiencing performance issues because of compounding pressures like the pandemic, severe weather disruptions and labor shortages. Rail service is an integral part of the supply chain, and industries depend on reliable service in this already challenging economy. Even a minor labor disruption will result in loss contract shutdowns lost revenues and reduce taxation revenues to the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan. Therefore, the undersigned call on the Government of Canada to one ... Immediately implement back to work legislation should a work stoppage or disruption of rail service occur. And two...to introduce legislation to designate rail service as an essential service to prevent future rail disruptions that are caused by labor disputes."
The petition was circulated at SARM's Annual Conference on Wednesday giving delegates and participants a chance to sign it.
Moe says they will deliver the petition to Ottawa this week.
For weeks now we have seen numerous farm organizations, companies, manufacturers, grain shippers and more raising concerns about the devastating impact a rail strike could have.
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