A pair of Alberta Ministers are calling on Ottawa to take action after thousands of CN rail employees went on strike last night.

3,200 CN employees walked off the job at midnight (EST) Monday, November 18th, after failing to come to a deal with the rail company.

The strike notice came over the weekend, around the same time reports surfaced CN had laid off about 1,600 workers.

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reconvene parliament immediately and issue emergency back to work legislation.

“CN Rail regularly ships in excess of 170,000 barrels of Western Canadian oil per day. Any disruption in shipments would have serious consequences for an economy that is already dealing with severe bottlenecks due to cancelled and delayed pipelines,” Savage was quoted as saying in a press release. “Alberta cannot see further restrictions on our ability to export our product.”

Parliament is scheduled to return for the first time since the election on October 21st. The minister says waiting an additional two weeks could result in serious damage to not just the Alberta economy, but the Canadian economy.

Alberta’s Agriculture and Forestry Minister Devin Dreeshen is also concerned about the impact the strike will have on farmers in the province.

“Alberta farmers depend on rail to get their world-class products to market. We have seen the severe consequences of rail backlogs before. Farmers don’t need the added pain from compounding rail delays, especially after this difficult harvest,” said Dreeshen. “Now is the time to act.”

CN Rail says they're still bargaining with the union and believe, with the assistance of federal mediators, they can end the labour dispute and get trains running again.

 

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