Rail and port strikes push economy off track: Senator Lewis
Tags
As a farmer, I’ve been affected by work stoppages in the transportation sector for my entire career. For farmers, work stoppages have real consequences: degraded grain quality, penalties for not delivering product according to contract terms, accrued interest on loans that would have been paid had product been delivered, and international clients who decide that they’d rather do business with countries with more reliable supply chains.
And it’s not just agricultural producers who are affected. When there’s a work stoppage at one of our major ports, Canadian businesses that ship containerized goods and bulk exports lose a main access point to international markets. A backlog at a port due to a work stoppage in the rail or marine sector can result in layoffs for employees of manufacturing, construction and sales businesses unable to source production inputs. For every day of work stoppage, it can take up to seven days for service to recover once work resumes.
This fall, the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications is studying labour disruptions in federally regulated rail and marine sectors. The federal government evidently recognizes the danger of prolonged work stoppages; Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University, told the committee that the Government of Canada used back-to-work legislation to intervene in labour disputes 37 times from 1950 to 2024. The vast majority of strikes that were legislated back to work occurred in the transportation sector.
More recently, the federal government has foregone back-to-work legislation; instead, labour ministers have used their discretionary powers under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to intervene in labour disputes. In 2024 alone, the federal government used section 107 on seven separate occasions.
Union representatives have told the committee that going on strike allows workers to exert economic pressure on the employer. But strikes in the rail and marine sectors impact the entire Canadian economy, resulting in lost wages, lost contracts and lost opportunities for businesses and individual Canadians who have no representation at the bargaining table.
Both unions and employers have told our committee that the current system isn’t fit for purpose. Tom Doran, first vice-president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told us: “The system is broken. If [employers] can rely on the government to constantly give them an off-ramp, whether it is the use of section 107 or continued use of back-to-work legislation that provides for binding arbitration ... it doesn’t get to the core issues.”
Daniel Safayeni, president and chief executive officer for Federally Regulated Employers-Transportation and Communications, told us: “We all agree the current system isn’t working and that there is a legitimate role for government, not to impose outcomes, but to facilitate fair and timely resolutions while keeping both parties meaningfully engaged in the process.”
We need to find a way to ensure that work stoppages are a last resort. A potential model is the United States’ Railway Labor Act (RLA), which was enacted in 1926. In an overview of the act, the U.S. Department of Transportation notes: “The purposes of the RLA are to avoid any interruption of interstate commerce by providing for the prompt disposition of disputes between carriers and their employees and protects the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”
The American legislation is effective. Erik Loomis, a labour historian at the University of Rhode Island, wrote in a 2022 article for The Conversation that “strikes that obstruct transportation rarely occur in the United States, and the last one involving rail workers happened three decades ago.”
In the 2025 federal budget, the government notes that “Canada’s path to long-term economic resilience hinges on diversifying our exports.” It also “acknowledges the interdependence within Canada’s grain supply chain and is committed to ensuring interests are appropriately balanced and that the system enables business investment and confidence in our capacity to meet the transportation needs of the sector.”
If Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to diversify exports and enable investment, he needs to modernize the Canada Labour Code to address the frequency of rail and port strikes in Canada.
Senator Todd Lewis is a fourth-generation farmer and a member of the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications. He represents Saskatchewan.
This article was published in The Hill Times on November 26, 2025.
As a farmer, I’ve been affected by work stoppages in the transportation sector for my entire career. For farmers, work stoppages have real consequences: degraded grain quality, penalties for not delivering product according to contract terms, accrued interest on loans that would have been paid had product been delivered, and international clients who decide that they’d rather do business with countries with more reliable supply chains.
And it’s not just agricultural producers who are affected. When there’s a work stoppage at one of our major ports, Canadian businesses that ship containerized goods and bulk exports lose a main access point to international markets. A backlog at a port due to a work stoppage in the rail or marine sector can result in layoffs for employees of manufacturing, construction and sales businesses unable to source production inputs. For every day of work stoppage, it can take up to seven days for service to recover once work resumes.
This fall, the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications is studying labour disruptions in federally regulated rail and marine sectors. The federal government evidently recognizes the danger of prolonged work stoppages; Ian Lee, an associate professor at Carleton University, told the committee that the Government of Canada used back-to-work legislation to intervene in labour disputes 37 times from 1950 to 2024. The vast majority of strikes that were legislated back to work occurred in the transportation sector.
More recently, the federal government has foregone back-to-work legislation; instead, labour ministers have used their discretionary powers under section 107 of the Canada Labour Code to intervene in labour disputes. In 2024 alone, the federal government used section 107 on seven separate occasions.
Union representatives have told the committee that going on strike allows workers to exert economic pressure on the employer. But strikes in the rail and marine sectors impact the entire Canadian economy, resulting in lost wages, lost contracts and lost opportunities for businesses and individual Canadians who have no representation at the bargaining table.
Both unions and employers have told our committee that the current system isn’t fit for purpose. Tom Doran, first vice-president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, told us: “The system is broken. If [employers] can rely on the government to constantly give them an off-ramp, whether it is the use of section 107 or continued use of back-to-work legislation that provides for binding arbitration ... it doesn’t get to the core issues.”
Daniel Safayeni, president and chief executive officer for Federally Regulated Employers-Transportation and Communications, told us: “We all agree the current system isn’t working and that there is a legitimate role for government, not to impose outcomes, but to facilitate fair and timely resolutions while keeping both parties meaningfully engaged in the process.”
We need to find a way to ensure that work stoppages are a last resort. A potential model is the United States’ Railway Labor Act (RLA), which was enacted in 1926. In an overview of the act, the U.S. Department of Transportation notes: “The purposes of the RLA are to avoid any interruption of interstate commerce by providing for the prompt disposition of disputes between carriers and their employees and protects the right of employees to organize and bargain collectively.”
The American legislation is effective. Erik Loomis, a labour historian at the University of Rhode Island, wrote in a 2022 article for The Conversation that “strikes that obstruct transportation rarely occur in the United States, and the last one involving rail workers happened three decades ago.”
In the 2025 federal budget, the government notes that “Canada’s path to long-term economic resilience hinges on diversifying our exports.” It also “acknowledges the interdependence within Canada’s grain supply chain and is committed to ensuring interests are appropriately balanced and that the system enables business investment and confidence in our capacity to meet the transportation needs of the sector.”
If Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to diversify exports and enable investment, he needs to modernize the Canada Labour Code to address the frequency of rail and port strikes in Canada.
Senator Todd Lewis is a fourth-generation farmer and a member of the Senate Committee on Transport and Communications. He represents Saskatchewan.
This article was published in The Hill Times on November 26, 2025.