Senate debating bill to end CP Rail strike, could be law by evening
Posted May 31, 2012 02:41:54 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
OTTAWA – The Senate has opened debate on the Conservative government’s back-to-work legislation to end an eight-day strike by 4,800 employees of CP Rail.
The legislation is expected to speed through the Conservative-dominated upper chamber by this evening, at which point it will get royal assent.
A spokesman for CP Rail says the company’s plan is to have cars rolling 12 hours after the bill becomes law, meaning the trains could start moving Friday morning.
The company expects service will be back to normal 48 hours after the wheels start turning, although clearing the freight backlog is more difficult to assess and the company was not prepared today to offer an estimate.
The Harper government has been both lauded and criticized for swiftly ending the labour disruption at CP Rail, which Labour Minister Lisa Raitt claims was costing the economy half a billion dollars a week.
It’s the third time in the last year the government has tabled or threatened back-to-work legislation, a development that critics say short-circuits free collective bargaining and does no favours to workers or the long-term health of business.
