NS suspends some hazmat shipments due to potential Canadian rail strike

Norfolk Southern Railway yesterday notified its customers that it has issued an embargo on transporting certain hazardous materials to and from CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City due to a strike against Canada's two Class Is that could begin Aug. 22.

In its message, NS said it is closely monitoring the labor situation at CN and CPKC and subsequently issued an immediate embargo on toxic-by-inhalation (TIH), poisonous-by-inhalation (PIH) and rail security-sensitive materials (RSSM) to allow time for those materials to exit the rail system before the potential work stoppage.

Additional embargoes may be issued as a result of the potential strike, NS officials said.

Meanwhile, CN and CPKC have begun halting shipments of certain goods in preparation for a possible shutdown as a bargaining deadline with the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) approaches, according to a report on bnnbloomberg.ca.

In an internal memo obtained by The Canadian Press, CN said it began to embargo hazardous goods from the United States on Aug. 12. On Aug. 9, CPKC said it would temporarily ban shipment of dangerous materials to make sure none end up stranded on tracks if there's a strike, according to the news report.

After the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) issued a decision that did not bring CN's and CPKC's labor conflict with the TCRC closer to a resolution, CN last week formally asked Canada's labor minister to intervene to protect Canada's economy in the event of a strike.

The CIRB determined that no services need to be maintained during a rail strike or lockout in order to protect Canadian public health and safety. The CIRB also ordered a 13-day extension of the cooling off period which ends Aug. 22.

CPKC announced Aug. 9 that it would issue to TCRC a lockout notice effective Aug. 22 if union leadership and the company are unable to come to a negotiated settlement or agree to binding interest arbitration.