CP endures short strike; arbitration set

Roughly 3,000 union train and operations employees returned to work on Monday, Feb. 16, 2015 following a 36-hour strike against Canadian Pacific Railway, after CP agreed to binding arbitration, thus pre-empting any back-to-work order from the Canadian federal government.

Federal Labor Minister Kellie Leitch announced the agreement Monday afternoon, saying at a press conference, “To the credit of the Teamsters and CP Rail, they’ve come to an agreement to go to mediated arbitration, and I think that’s in the best interests of Canadians and the Canadian economy.”

The arbitrator will be appointed by the federal government.

CP CEO E. Hunter Harrison said he would have preferred a negotiated settlement with the striking locomotive engineers and conductors but acknowledged that “this is the right thing to do at this time.”

The union began the strike on Feb. 15 over wage and benefits issues, and threatened to disrupt supply chains through much of North America.

The brevity of the strike, combined with several train derailments occurring during the U.S. three-day holiday weekend, obscured the strike’s media profile to some degree.