Rally held outside of CN headquarters in Montreal amid rail strike

A few dozen workers of the Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) rallied outside their Montreal office on Thursday morning, amid an unprecedented railway lockout.

After months of negotiations, the CN, Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) and the Teamsters union failed to reach an agreement on a new contract before a 12:01 a.m. EDT deadline.

The companies have locked out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers, forcing a major railway shutdown.

Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference set up picket lines outside of the CN headquarters in Montreal on Thursday morning.

“The main points are the employer’s demands for concessions that will compromise the safety of the general public and the health and safety of our workers,” said François Laporte, President of Teamsters Canada to TVA in French. “We don’t want a second Lac-Mégantic to happen in every town and village across Canada. There are trains carrying chemicals, oil, gas, all sorts of products. And it takes people who operate trains who are well rested and who have working conditions that allow them to do their job safely.”

The industries hit hardest by the strike include agriculture, mining, energy, retail, automaking and construction.

The Railway Association of Canada says the shutdown halts about $1 billion in goods traffic each day, some of which was preemptively stopped to avoid having cargo stranded in the event of a stoppage.

Due to the work stoppage, more than 32,000 rail commuters across the country will now also have to find new routes to the office.

Citizens who use the commuter train networks in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver have been majorly affected by the walkout.

-With files from The Canadian Press