(Bloomberg News circulated the following story on February 24.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ford Motor Co. and the Canadian Wheat Board said shipments of vehicles and grain are being disrupted by a labor strike against Canadian National Railway Co., which carries more than half of the country’s rail traffic.
Ford, the second-biggest North American automaker, halted shipments at three Ontario factories after employees who are members of the Canadian Auto Workers union and not on strike refused to load vehicles, spokeswoman Lauren More said. The Wheat Board, the world’s biggest seller of wheat and barley, said the strike that began Friday is causing “a significant slowdown” in grain shipments.
The railway operated more than 90 percent of its trains with “miminal delays” and customers have not diverted any shipments, spokesman Mark Hallman said. About 5,000 clerical and mechanical workers at the railroad struck on Friday after earlier rejecting a three-year contract with a 3 percent annual pay raise.
“We have provided adequate service,” Hallman said in an interview. “We have had the service levels to accommodate the business.”
Hallman said Ford chose to halt shipments and he disagreed with the Winnipeg-based Wheat Board’s characterization that service has been curtailed. He said the Montreal-based railroad has providing the same number of cars it provided for the several weeks preceding the strike.
Rail Car Request
The Wheat Board requested 2,400 railway cars from the Montreal-based CN for use this week and was told it could only have 1,300, said Louise Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Winnipeg- based wheat marketer. The agency in earlier weeks requested between 700 and 2,100 cars a week, she said.
“If the situation worsens, we will be calling on the federal government to legislate the workers back to work,” Waldman said in a telephone interview.
More said Ford ships about 2,500 vehicles a day from Canada, 80 percent by rail. She gave no date for resuming shipments and said new vehicles that are being produced are being stored. The automaker also halted some production on the day shift at its St. Thomas plant because of a parts shortage, she said.
“It looks as if CN is no longer able to fulfill its obligations to the auto industry,” union spokesman Abe Rosner said.
“We have struggled with shipping the volume we need,” said General Motors Corp. spokesman Stew Low. HeJe wouldn’t say whether any shipments have been halted or diverted. “It hasn’t gotten to the point where it is affecting production.”