Around 3,000 Canadian National Railway Workers Go on Strike

Around 3,000 conductors, yard workers, and other train workers of Canadian National Railway, the country’s biggest rail network operator, went on strike Tuesday, labor union Teamsters Canada said after the union and the company failed to resolve contract issues and reach a compromise.

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"Conductors, train persons and yard workers at Canadian National Railway are now officially on strike," the union announced in a tweet.

The union representing the workers had issued Saturday the required 72-hour strike action notice period to the company, hoping an agreement would be signed by Monday morning. As the expectations were frustrated and the talks reached an impasse, the first strike of the railway workers in a decade was launched.

Teamsters Canada spokesman Christopher Monette said on Monday the strike comes because workers are “hitting a wall on issues related to health and safety.”

The labor union’s Facebook account also shared pictures of dozens of CN workers carrying placards in support of the strike on the streets of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

CN workers voted in favor of a strike in September after negotiations failed to produce a contract. The previous collective bargaining agreement expired on July 23.

The North American country is one of the world’s largest exporters of farm products and depends on its two main railways to move its products including canola and wheat over the far-reaching distances from farms located in the western part of the country to its ports. Crude oil shippers in Alberta have also increasingly used trains in the past year to reach United States refineries as an alternative to congested pipelines.