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Riders who use the Exo commuter rail service had to find another way to get to work Friday, with the Vaudreuil-Hudson, St-Jérôme and Candiac lines suspended because of the labour disruption at CN and CPKC.
The lockouts, imposed at 12:01 a.m. Thursday, shut down the three Exo lines that use CPKC railways.
Federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has asked the Canada Industrial Relations Board to impose final, binding arbitration to end the work stoppage at Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.
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The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference says it has taken down picket lines at Canadian National Railway Co. and its workers will begin returning to work on Friday. However, the union said the work stoppage at Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., which affects Exo rail lines, remains ongoing pending an order from the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
In an interview Friday afternoon, Exo spokesperson Catherine Maurice said the time frame for resumption of service on the three lines remains unknown.
“There are a lot of things in flux,” Maurice said. “We’re waiting for information from CPKC to be able to plan how to resume service and following the situation closely.”
Maurice encouraged commuters to visit Exo’s website, exo.quebec, over the weekend to have up-to-date information for Monday.
Exo has already said it is planning a shuttle bus service and other measures for Monday, but has warned it won’t have enough buses to fully replace the suspended train service.
About 21,000 rides per day are taken on the three affected lines. The Mont-St-Hilaire and Mascouche lines remain unaffected.
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CN said Thursday evening it had ended its lockout and initiated a recovery plan, while CPKC said it was preparing to restart operations.
CPKC said in a statement the CIRB called an urgent meeting Thursday evening about getting service resumed, but said the Teamsters union refused to discuss resuming service and wants to make submissions to challenge the constitutionality of MacKinnon’s direction.
The Teamsters has said both companies are pushing to weaken protections around rest periods and scheduling. It adds that CN is also seeking a scheme that would see some employees move to far-flung locations for several months at a time to fill labour gaps.
CN and CPKC locked out workers after they failed to reach a deal on a new contract before a midnight deadline Thursday, the first simultaneous shutdown on Canada’s two largest railways.
Postmedia News and The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
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