Singh to Trudeau: do not reward rail giants for locking out workers

OTTAWA—NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh released the following statement in response to CPKC and CN railways’ locking out 9,300 workers:

“CN and CPKC should still be bargaining with Teamsters Canada. Instead, those massive corporations chose to lock out 9,300 workers—despite thousands of families and swaths of Canada’s economy depending on the trains.

Why? Because corporate giants like CN and CPKC expect the Liberals to do what they usually do: swoop in to help the corporation and hurt the workers with binding arbitration or back-to-work legislation. By setting that anti-worker precedent again and again, Justin Trudeau sent a clear message to CEOs: he’ll reward big corporations when they refuse to negotiate in good faith by serving up their workers on a silver platter.

I have always been clear, New Democrats will not support back-to-work legislation or any interference in the bargaining process. Canada has a government that caves to corporate greed. The result is labour disruptions, and workers struggling to get fair pay and safe working conditions. It’s backwards, and it hurts everyone but the billionaires at the top.”