(The following story by Dina O’Meara appeared on the Chronicle Herald website on May 24.)
CALGARY — Lawyers for Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. and its striking maintenance workers faced off in a Calgary courtroom Wednesday, as the company sought to shut down some picketing activity at its yards.
CP Rail, Canada’s second largest railway, argued action of strikers slowing truck traffic into and out of the intermodal terminals was obstructive and posed a safety risk due to the backlog of vehicles.
Trucks moving in and out of the Calgary yard have been held up an average of five minutes each by picketers, and up to half an hour at other CP Rail locations, according to company spokesman Mark Seland.
“Clearly, it is an irritant and inconvenience for our trucking partners,” Seland told The Canadian Press.
Train service has not been impacted by a week-long strike by yard workers, Seland said.
The judge in Calgary will give a ruling today.
The 3,200-member Maintenance-of-Way division of the Teamsters walked off the job May 16 after contract negotiations with the company failed.
CP Rail applied for injunctions in a number of cities last week to restrict picketers from blocking or impeding traffic in and out of their train yards, and received injunctions at other intermodal terminals, including Winnipeg and Vaughn, Ont., north of Toronto.
A court hearing is scheduled Friday to receive an injunction for a second yard in Toronto.
While the railway has been strike free for four years, its rival Canadian National Railway Company suffered a two-week long strike by locomotive drivers and maintenance workers in February.