NDP slams Liberals as ‘anti-worker’, while Conservatives remain silent

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OTTAWA — The ongoing labour dispute with Canada’s two largest railway companies could prove a political headache for federal parties seeking the votes of unionized workers.

On Thursday, less than 17 hours after Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and Canadian National (CN) locked out their workers, Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon said he would order the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final binding arbitration.

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MacKinnon said that while his government “has done a lot for the labour movement and is totally committed to collective bargaining,” he said negotiations between the railways and their workers have reached an “impasse” and the effects are being felt by all Canadians.

The news drew a scathing response from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party supports the government under its supply and confidence agreement.

“Justin Trudeau just sent a message to CN, CPKC and all big business: it pays to be a bad boss,” he said. “The Liberals’ actions are cowardly, anti-worker and show that they will always cave to corporate greed, and Canadians will always pay the price.”

“The lockouts will not stop. All employers know that they can get exactly what they want from Justin Trudeau by refusing to negotiate in good faith with their employees. And that puts the safety of workers and communities at risk,” he added.

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Conservatives, on the other hand, have remained remarkably silent on the issue.

Despite the rail shutdown being the most pressing economic issue of the moment, requests for comment to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Labour critic Kyle Seeback about the ongoing dispute have gone unanswered over the past two days.

In the meantime, Poilievre tweeted a video about unleashing the power of natural resources, another about “drug dens,” shared a petition to end the carbon tax and issued a statement on Black Ribbon Day for the victims of Communism and Nazism in Europe.

Former Conservative cabinet minister James Moore told CBC News that Poilievre has been involved in cabinet labour disputes before and knows there’s a lot that can happen behind the scenes. He added that negotiating in public “is probably not helpful.”

“As leader of the opposition, you don’t hit every pitch,” Moore said.

Carlene Variyan, associate vice-president of Summa Strategies, was an adviser to the Liberal government’s labour minister for three years. She said in an interview that it was “very strange” that the Conservatives had not yet spoken out on the rail dispute.

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“They have done this in the past when it comes to employment law issues like this, so it is remarkable that they are silent on this,” she said.

The Conservatives have made efforts to build relationships with the labour movement and recently nominated Colin Reynolds, an electrician who says he is proud to be a union member, as their candidate in an upcoming Winnipeg byelection.

“I think this byelection in Elmwood—Transcona is part of it because it’s a big rail town,” Variyan said of the party’s silence on the rail labour dispute.

The situation has evolved very quickly. On Friday, the Teamsters union served CN with a 72-hour strike notice that would begin Monday. As for the CPKC, the union said the work stoppage was continuing pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.

In a statement, CN blamed unionized workers for “crippling the economy, impacting people and jobs across the country” and urged the board to rule quickly on the issue. Business groups also highlighted the damage to the economy across the country.

Cam Holmstrom, founder and principal of Niipaawi Strategies and an NDP strategist, said there could be risks for any opposition party to block a solution.

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“Honestly, I think the best thing these guys can do at this point, for the Conservatives and for the NDP, is to be honestly constructive. Don’t point fingers. This is not the time to blame anyone without having a way to help,” he said.

Holmstrom said that while Canadians in major centres are used to hearing media reports about First Nations communities under boil water advisories, they might have a different opinion if chlorine shipments don’t cross the country.

“Do you want to be the guy in a year’s time who is campaigning and explaining to people why you’re not prepared to make concessions to allow people to have clean water in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Edmonton?” he asked.

“For me, that’s why… I think there’s a lot of danger for everyone in this situation.”

The Canada Industrial Relations Board is expected to issue a decision within days, but once this dispute is over, MacKinnon said, the federal government will examine why the rail sector has experienced repeated labour disputes.

Variyan warned that binding arbitration will almost certainly not permanently solve some of the long-standing problems in the rail sector, and that the country could find itself in the same situation in a few years, perhaps under a conservative government.

“There’s a ‘buy now, pay later’ problem,” she said. “When you force two parties that are so far apart to make a deal, you push the situation out to a later time, so in three or four years we’ll probably be in that situation.”

National Post
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