WINNIPEG, MANITOBA/MONTREAL QUEBED – Shippers scrambled to shift freight onto trucks on Thursday as a strike at Canada’s biggest railroad, Canadian National Railway Co., entered its third day and left the critical fuel propane and other goods stranded.
Some 3,200 unionized employees, including conductors and yard workers, hit picket lines on Tuesday in the biggest such action in a decade. The strike over working conditions has slowed output at industrial plants making chemicals, canola oil and other products.
It has also held up deliveries of propane, used to heat homes in some provinces and to fuel crop dryers for farmers.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault told reporters that the province only had a 4-and-a-half day propane supply. He urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government to impose back-to-work-legislation if the two sides failed to agree.
Trucks waited more than six hours in Sarnia, Ontario, the closest propane pickup location to Quebec, said Canadian Propane Association Chief Executive Nathalie St-Pierre.
“It’s something that’s never been experienced,” she said, adding that the government should deem propane as an essential product for railways to move without interruption.
Farmers cannot wait any longer for propane, with crops harvested wet from the field and needing to be dried, said Markus Haerle, chairman of Grain Farmers of Ontario.
Shippers eager to reach customers are tapping other options.
Major retailers and pulp and paper companies have started hiring trucks from Montreal-based Fuel Transport, even though they cost more than rail, said President Robert Piccioni. Others are just waiting for the strike to end.
“When things like this go off the rails, we can ramp up and give (customers) the extra capacity. But as soon as rail comes back, it’s gone.”
While Piccioni was speaking to Reuters, he was notified of a customer ordering 50 trucks to haul food-grade liquids.
That will require more tanks than Fuel Transport owns, but Piccioni said he would buy or rent the additional equipment.
“There’s immense pressure on my team to get this done,” he said.
Alberta trucking firms have seen a modest pickup in work, as short-haul jobs they would normally handle turned into longer trips, said Jude Groves, chairman of the Alberta Motor Transport Association.
“Everyone’s hedging their bets a bit. Generally, the impact of rail strikes is widespread and short-lived.”
CN Rail Chief Executive JJ Ruest said in a statement on Thursday he regretted that customers were inconvenienced and was committed to finding a solution.
The railway has proposed binding arbitration, an option that the Teamsters Canadian Rail Conference union has rejected.
The union’s concerns center on fatigue, safety and ensuring that workers’ breaks are not reduced.
Lyndon Isaak, president of the union, told Reuters that workers were “extremely happy” with Trudeau’s government for allowing the sides to continue negotiations.
Isaak said the contract dispute was over working hours, not money.
“They want to work our conductors longer and make them perform more duties over that period.”
Canada relies on CN and Canadian Pacific Railway to move crops, potash, coal and manufactured goods to ports and the United States.
The strike has curbed oil shipments by rail during a period where full pipelines have already forced Alberta to curb production. Provincial inventories have surged and are approaching last year’s peak, Eight Capital analyst Phil Skolnick said.
Credit Suisse highlighted the impact on Hudbay Minerals Inc from the strike in a note, saying its sales would lag and inventory would pile up if the strike continued.
The company’s stock fell 2.9 percent.
On Wednesday, Canada’s transport minister said the talks were making progress. A spokesman said on Thursday there was no further update.
CN shares dropped 0.6 percent in Toronto, continuing a four-day slide of 3.4 percent
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