Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has rejected a request by Canadian National Railway to initiate binding arbitration in a labor dispute with the Teamsters union, a spokesman for the minister said on Thursday.

In a letter to CN Rail’s lawyers, MacKinnon said it was the shared responsibility of the company and the union to negotiate in good faith. The letter, sent on Wednesday, was released by the Teamsters.

Talks between CN Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City - the country’s two largest rail companies - and the Teamsters are deadlocked, with each side blaming the other.

CN Rail said it was disappointed by MacKinnon’s decision, saying he would have to reconsider if the union did not “get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table”.

  • @psmgx
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    -54 months ago

    They gon strike and the Canadian economy is gonna suffer.

    • Nik282000
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      94 months ago

      Good. The economy needs to pay the most it can bear for labour. We pay the most we can bear for goods and services.

      • @ikidd
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        -44 months ago

        Every cent of that will be passed on the to the consumer. So your goods and services will get more expensive.

        • @[email protected]OP
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          34 months ago

          So you want the unions (as both CN and CP are under strike mandates) to be forced back to work instead? That only helps the railways, not the employees.

          Besides, I bet you don’t even know what they’re fighting for or that it’s the railways who are gonna lock out the workers, do you?

          • @ikidd
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            -14 months ago

            So the user I’m replying to said they pay the most they can bear for goods and services. But any additional costs are going to be passed along, inevitably, so those goods and services are going to cost more.

            What part of that depicts my opinion of what railway workers should or shouldn’t make?

            You decide what my opinion is and then attack. How does that work out for you IRL?

            • @[email protected]OP
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              4 months ago

              So the user I’m replying to said they pay the most they can bear for goods and services.

              No they didn’t. They said we should be paying the most we can for labour. Not one thing was said about goods.

              • @ikidd
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                -14 months ago

                We pay the most we can bear for goods and services.

                Apparently you stopped at the first period.