Two of Canada's largest railroad companies in arbitration with the Union

 

GRANGER, Ind. -- Two of Canada's largest railroad companies are not running today, because of labor disputes with roughly 9,000 Teamsters Union workers.

While it is technically a lockout by management, not a strike, it threatens employee income and economic disruptions downstream.

It's too soon to tell what the full impacts could be from a railroad lockout up north, but one supply chain disruption can have a rapid domino effect. 

"All the major train traffic really comes through here. So, the CN for example, has to dip around the lake, so it dips down from the lake through our area here," stated South Bend Reginal Chamber President and CEO Jeff Rea. 

Indiana, the crossroads of America, are bracing for the impact of labor disputes up north, as Canada's two major freight companies slow to a stop.

"If you think about the numbers that go across every day, one day when you're missing that, makes everything backlogged. And so, the numbers have an immediate impact and sort of grow exponentially from there just by a small delay, let alone a lockout that can take several days, stated Indiana Farm Bureau Director of National Government Affairs Brantley Seifers.

Rea continues, "the connection to Canada is really critical to the Indiana economy as a whole."

More than 150,000 Hoosier jobs depend on trade with Canada, stated Rea.

"Indiana sends more product to Canada than any other foreign country in the world. So the top three countries we export to are Canada, Mexico and China. And we do more to Canada than we do Mexico and China combined. So, that's sort of how critical a trade partner we are. So we send almost $15 billion of product to Canada each and every year, and in return, we get about $11 billions of product back," finishes Rea.

Indiana exports motor vehicle parts, automobiles, trucks, plastics, fuel oil, and more to Canada.

The state imports iron, steel alloys, fertilizer, pharmaceutical products, minerals, and more from Canada.

"Across multiple industries in Agriculture, a rail strike or a rail lockout can have tremendous impacts on their producers, their members, what they can get out and what they need to come in," stated Seifers.

Prices of goods like lumber and fertilizer could be impacted, with storage of goods that would normally go north could become burdensome.

Rea stated, "I think it's a great example of how dependent we all are on each other."

Just as ABC57 was coming onto air, we learned that the Canadian government is forcing the Union and the railroads into arbitration talks, and in the meantime, the railroad companies are back in business.

This was to avoid what would have almost certainly been major economic consequences in the country and here at home.