Less than 17 hours after almost all rail freight traffic in Canada came to a standstill Thursday following a lockout by the country’s two main rail companies of 10,000 employees, the federal government told a labor board to end the shutdown and ordered arbitration.
The lockout had threatened to cause supply-chain disruptions in the United States and serious economic consequences within Canada. The moves followed months of contract talks that had failed to reach an agreement.
Steve MacKinnon, Canada’s labor minister, said at a news conference in Ottawa on Thursday that he had told the Canada Industrial Relations Board to formally order the railways to restart service. He said that he expected trains would be rolling “within days.”
He also told the labor board to extend the contracts between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference — the union that represents the workers locked out — and the railway companies: Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City. The contracts expired at the end of the last year.
“The impacts of the current impasse are being borne by all Canadians,” Mr. MacKinnon said at the news conference. “Millions of Canadians rely on our railways every day.”
