WESTLOCK — As a potential rail strike looms closer, companies and industries in the Town of Westlock, particularly those who rely on rail for everyday business, are keeping a close eye on the current situation.
Westlock Terminals CEO, Clifford Bell said a strike could have dire consequences for his company and the entire grain industry.
“It’s not a good situation for sure,” said Bell. “We are very concerned. If we don’t move grain, we don’t get paid. That’s the bottom line,” he added, noting there’s worry over a potentially long-term strike. “We are very concerned that if this strike is going to be long-term, it’s going to have some very detrimental effects on Westlock Terminals, (and) all of the grain industry.”
Westlock Terminals has grown its operations to include grain transportation and sales, storage and blending, future distillery operation and a fleet of trucks and rail cars. They source and ship grain products from multiple areas in western Canada to points around the globe.
“It basically puts all hopper car movement (on hold) and as well, it’s all intermodal. We load a fair amount of grain into intermodal sea cans, so that definitely affects that too.”
Canadian National Railway (CN) and the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) remain deadlocked in negotiations with Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union.
On Aug. 18, CN issued a lockout notice to workers if a deal is not reached by Aug. 22 at 12 a.m. ET, and likewise, the union also issued a 72-hour strike notice to CPKC the same day.
If they do go on strike Bell said they have other options for transporting their commodities, but noted the challenge, saying that the export part of the business “really needs the rail traffic.”
“The fallback is always to trucks, but it’s not as efficient and it’s very costly for everybody to revert to truck traffic. You just can’t replace everything you ship by rail or intermodal into a truck,” he said adding several domestic markets could continue such as those in British Columbia and in southern Alberta.
“We can keep the B.C. domestic market somewhat fluid, and we can keep southern Alberta fluid with trucks, but we can’t ship trucks to export terminals or export (stuffers) that can stuff containers to be loaded on ocean-going vessels,” said Bell. “It’s bad news for an industry that’s already under the gun, for trying to make some money.”
The federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon is in Calgary today (Wednesday) to meet with involved parties and urge them to come to an agreement and avoid a strike.
