Canadian Pacific rail workers end strike

Canadian Pacific (CP) rail conductors and locomotive engineers have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, ending a day-old strike that delayed shipments of crude, coal, fertilizer and chemicals.

Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference-Train & Engine went on strike at 10pm ET yesterday after they could not reach an agreement on a new contract with CP's management. The railroad was forced to shut its Canadian operations.

Operations should resume tomorrow at "6am local time across Canada," the Teamsters said. CP did not address when trains would start moving again.

Some shippers said today that managers were moving trains in and out of customers' yards, likely to allow for loading and unloading while operations were paused.

The new contract provides "long-term stability for all parties involved" and helps to create "a renewed positive relationship" with the union, CP chief executive Keith Creel said.

"We have had the discussion that needed to take place," Teamsters president Doug Finnson said. The agreement is a "solid step in re-establishing a positive business relationship," he said.

CP and the union have agreed on a new four-year contract. Details will be presented to members before being publicly released.

Union members must ratify the new agreement. The last contract proposal failed to win sufficient support among union members during an 18-25 May vote held by the Canada Industrial Relations Board. Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) also rejected a contract proposal in that vote.

IBEW yesterday agreed to a tentative three-year deal which must also be voted on.

Shippers had started to worry about delays. British Columbia-based Teck Resources, the largest coking coal producer in Canada, said it planned to stockpile coking coal at its mines served by CP to keep its facilities operating, the company said today.

CP transports primarily coal from mines to export facilities in western Canada and to steelmakers and metallurgical coke producers in the Great Lakes region of the US. Nearly 90pc of CP's coal shipments are made up of coking coal.

CP transported 78,000 carloads of coal in the first three months of the year, an earnings report shows.