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On May 23 the union walked out on Canada’s second largest rail shipper saying the group has been without a contract since December 2011.
Deadlocked negotiations this weekend have prompted government officials to begin discussion of tabling legislation to protect national interests in the railroad standstill.
“Talks have ended and the legislative process as I understand it, will now commence,” Canadian Pacific spokesperson Ed Greenberg said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Labour Minister Lisa Raitt was instrumental in organizing Sunday’s failed negotiations and expressed extreme disappointment in the impasse.
“What we’re hearing right now is that it’s getting more and more tight, it’s getting more and more difficult and it’s starting to actually affect their operations, and that’s the kind of national economic significance that we're looking for in order to intervene,” she told Canada’s Postmedia News.
“They’ve come to a point where they simply haven't been able to find a deal to date. So now they’re looking at the availability of finding their own process and still being masters of their destiny.”
In its sixth day, strike has so far mobilized some 4800 conductors, traffic controllers and engineers.
The Mining Association of Canada has confirmed that as the industry ships more than half of the country’s rail freight, it would be seriously affected.
Canadian Pacific operates more than 14,800 miles of railway across Canada as well as 13 US states.
