Outbreaks of coronavirus infections have killed three people and infected hundreds more on farms in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, in recent weeks.

Health Minister Patty Hajdu said she had heard stories about the treatment of migrant workers that “would curl your hair,” and the way some farms treat them now is “a national disgrace.”

Hajdu added that she was working with Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough “on how to reform the temporary foreign worker program” but gave no details on what those reforms might look like.

Canadian farmers rely on some 60,000 temporary foreign workers, predominantly from Latin America and the Caribbean, to plant and harvest crops. Many live in crowded bunkhouses where the virus can spread quickly.

“All the PPE (personal protective equipment) in the world will not protect you if you are sleeping in a bunkhouse that is housing 12 to 15 people that may not have any ability for distancing, certainly no private washrooms or kitchen,” Hajdu said when asked whether Canada would consider providing migrant workers with PPE upon their arrival in Canada.

Migrant farm workers are considered a vulnerable population and need to be supported should they fall ill, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam told reporters on Thursday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also said Canada must do more to protect migrant farm workers, who are considered essential workers.

Earlier this week, an Ontario official said the province would allow some people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but do not have symptoms to immediately return to work, provided precautions were in place.

— Kelsey Johnson reports on Canadian economic issues for Reuters from Ottawa.

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Health Minister Patty Hajdu on Wednesday announced an emergency order under the federal Quarantine Act, requiring anyone who’s entering Canada by land, air or sea to self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of whether they show symptoms of COVID-19.

The mandatory self-isolation rule took effect at midnight Thursday.

Nearly everyone who’s exempt from the March 21 ban on all non-essential entry is subject to the new mandatory self-isolation order — except for “certain persons who cross the border regularly to ensure the continued flow of goods and services, and those who provide essential services” such as truckers, medical workers and firefighters.

Those exempt from self-isolation, however, will “still need to practice social distancing and self-monitoring and contact their local public health authority if they feel sick,” the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a release.

They’ll also have to “practice proper self-isolation measures when not performing their duties,” Canada Border Services Agency president John Ossowski said in a separate statement Thursday.

Hajdu’s new 14-day mandatory isolation rule will still apply to temporary foreign workers (TFWs) coming to Canada.

A previously announced exemption to the travel ban is now formally in place for TFWs, clearing them to travel to the country. A new government notice to incoming TFWs states that “when you arrive in Canada we’ll assess your health before you leave the port of entry” but also that “you must isolate for 14 days even if you have no (COVID-19) symptoms.”

“It is absolutely necessary to keep the economy moving at this time without disruption in order to bring essential goods to market and maintain integrated supply chains,” Ossowski said Thursday. “These supply chains ensure that food, fuel, and life-saving medicines reach people on both sides of the border.”

That said, he also noted “no foreign national with signs or symptoms of respiratory illness (is) permitted entry.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), whose CTY arm represents about 3,000 unionized CN staff, announced late Monday its members would stop work at 12:01 a.m. ET Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to reach a deal with CN,” the TCRC said late Monday on its website. “The company remains unwilling to address our members’ heath and safety issues.”

A work stoppage would bring CN’s operations to a halt but would not affect public transportation, the TCRC said Saturday.

Federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, in a statement Tuesday morning after the strike began, said she and Transport Minister Marc Garneau were “monitoring the situation closely” and “urge both parties to continue their negotiations.”

At least two Prairie grain grower groups are already calling on Hajdu and Garneau to “be prepared to intervene” in the event of a strike.

Alberta’s wheat and barley grower commissions, in a joint statement Monday, warned that “even a disruption of a few days” in grain traffic “will cause a massive backlog and economic losses that are ultimately borne by farmers.”

CN, the commissions said, delivers up to 5,650 rail cars per week to Canadian elevators, representing over half a million tonnes of grain. “If those cars are not supplied, farmers can’t deliver and are not paid.”

“There are a lot of farmers who already have a significant amount of their income trapped under snow,” Alberta Wheat Commission chair Gary Stanford, who farms at Magrath, south of Lethbridge, said Monday.

“That means that for the grain we did manage to harvest, we won’t be paid at least until service resumes.”

The Canadian Propane Association on Monday also cautioned that its members have “dealt with wet weather during the fall drying crop seasons and challenging winters that have included backlogs throughout much of the country.”

Farmers in the U.S. Midwest, many of whom also rely on propane to fuel grain dryers and are also facing a cold, wet harvest season, were already facing supply bottlenecks this fall in the weeks before the CN strike began.

“While we are hopeful that this year will be manageable, we once again are facing challenging weather conditions during crop drying season, particularly in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba,” CPA board chair Dan Kelly said in a letter to Garneau dated Friday.

Further east, Grain Farmers of Ontario on Tuesday also pressed Garneau and Hajdu to “be more proactive in bringing this dispute to an end,” also citing Ontario growers’ reliance on propane to dry grain.

“We are still seeing the majority of corn in the fields and harvest is progressing incredibly slowly,” GFO chair Markus Haerle said in a separate release. “The corn being harvested is very wet and will require extensive drying to be viable, which requires the use of propane and our access is now cut off.”

The government, Haerle said, “must understand that we had already anticipated needing twice as much propane this year as a normal year.”

The option of federal back-to-work legislation — as sought by another farm group, the Western Canadian Wheat Growers, in a separate release Tuesday — wasn’t mentioned in Hajdu’s statement. Rather, she reiterated Tuesday, the government “supports and has faith in the collective bargaining process.”

The government, she said, “understands the importance of the rail industry and its workers to the Canadian economy. While we are concerned about the impact of a work stoppage on Canadians, we remain hopeful (the company and union) will reach an agreement.”

‘One hand’

The TCRC said Saturday wages were “not a major sticking point” in talks with CN, compared to working conditions.

“CN currently requires TCRC members to operate trains alone from outside of the locomotive, hanging on to moving trains with one hand while operating a remotely controlled locomotive with the other,” the union said. “Railroaders are expected to do this in rain and in freezing temperatures, sometimes for distances of up to about 17 miles.”

CN, the Teamsters said, “has refused to come to a satisfactory agreement at the negotiations table to adjust their operating practices in the interest of safety.”

CN, which recently announced significant layoffs in Canada and the U.S., “wants to make it more difficult to take time off and make employees work longer hours, in an attempt to get more work done with fewer people and to reduce staffing levels,” the union said.

The company is also seeking a lifetime cap on prescription drug coverage for union members and their families, the Teamsters said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The lockout was immediately lifted and the union also withdrew its strike notice, according to separate statements by the B.C. Maritime Employers Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Canada.

Details of a tentative agreement on a new contract, reached with the help of federal mediation, were not released.

At issue was the employers association’s introduction of automation that could eliminate jobs, the union said.

The port is a major gateway to Asia for Canadian goods, moving large volumes of coal, grain, potash and forest products.

Despite its short duration, the lockout led to lineups of trucks outside terminals and vessels being rerouted to other West Coast ports, said Joel Neuheimer, vice president of international trade and transportation at Forest Products Association of Canada, whose members include Canfor Corp and West Fraser Timber.

Cruise ships and licensed grain terminals were not affected by the lockout.

The employers association represents 55 companies, such as ship owners and terminal operators at the port.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa.

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The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents about 3,000 CP engineers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents about 360 CP signal maintenance staff, both announced Saturday they have served CP with the required 72 hours’ minimum strike notice.

The notice followed Friday’s announcement that the membership of both unions voted decisively against ratifying what CP had described as its “final offers” to the two bargaining units. Mediated talks between CP and union brass have continued since then. Both unions’ memberships had voted early last month to authorize strike action if need be.

CP said in a statement Saturday it “will continue to meet with the TCRC and the IBEW in the hopes of reaching agreements that are in the best interests of the entire CP family, its customers, shareholders and the broader North American economy.”

Both unions said in a separate statement they “are willing to remain at the bargaining table until the May 29 strike deadline and beyond.”

“The meetings were not as successful as we had hoped, and there remain significant outstanding issues,” TCRC officials said in a notice to members Saturday, noting their bargaining committee had met with CP CEO Keith Creel, among other officials, “throughout the day until late (Friday) evening.”

Conductors and engineers should make “the necessary preparations to begin legal strike action” Tuesday night, the TCRC said.

“CP has continually changed directions during negotiations with little evidence that a settlement was ever possible. We have given CP every reasonable opportunity to negotiate and avoid a strike, but sadly that has led us nowhere,” Steve Martin, senior general chairman for IBEW System Council No. 11, said in the same release.

“CP is offering more of the same contract language that workers just voted to reject a few hours ago. The company clearly isn’t serious about reaching a negotiated settlement and delivering on their promise to do right by their employees,” TCRC president Doug Finnson said Saturday in a release.

A statement from federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu wasn’t immediately available Sunday. The minister’s previous statements on the matter haven’t mentioned the option of back-to-work legislation, which was used to end the previous two strikes by CP’s conductors and engineers.

Grower groups have previously called on the government to take action to prevent such a work stoppage. Alberta’s wheat and barley commissions last month wrote Hajdu asking her to impose binding arbitration and begin the process of introducing back-to-work legislation.

“(W)ith the inability to deliver grain on global contracts that were set for delivery as far back as October, some farmers are facing severe cash flow issues as we move into the 2018 growing season,” they wrote.

Railway employees, they added, “should be prohibited from taking strike action, now or into the future.”

“Wheat growers have suffered through the abysmal rail transportation problems this past growing season and now may have to face a strike by CP Rail. This is making a bad problem even worse,” Western Canadian Wheat Growers president Levi Wood said last month, also calling for a federal back-to-work rule. — AGCanada.com Network

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The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), which represents about 3,000 CP engineers, and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which represents about 360 CP signal maintenance staff, confirmed Friday their members have voted to reject what CP described as its “final contract offers” to the two bargaining units.

Both unions agreed in late April to postpone their planned strikes and vote on CP’s offers, as per a request from federal Labour Minister Patty Hajdu, who directed the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to conduct the ratification vote.

The outcome of the votes restores a situation in which the company could call a lockout, or either of the unions could strike, on 72 hours’ notice. Both unions’ memberships voted early last month to authorize strike action if need be.

The Ag Transport Coalition, which monitors Prairie grain movement on behalf of several shipper and grower organizations, noted Friday in its weekly rail performance update that the vote raises the possibility of a work stoppage at CP as early as Monday, “on the heels of the best performance this year.”

However, CP said Friday no notice of a work stoppage has been issued; neither union said Friday it had issued strike notice, although IBEW noted its council is back in a legal position to issue such notice “at anytime.”

CP also said it “will be meeting with both unions later today to discuss next steps.”

IBEW said Friday its negotiating committee “will meet with CP today to continue bargaining,” while the Teamsters said their bargaining committee would be “ready to meet” in Calgary with CP and federal mediators at 1 p.m. Friday and on through the weekend.

According to a Teamsters memo Friday to affected employees, 2,472 participating employees voted 98.1 per cent in favour of rejecting CP’s offer. IBEW, which pegged its voter turnout at 89 per cent, reported 97.2 per cent of participating members rejected the offer. Both unions had recommended rejecting the offers.

CP said Friday it’s “disappointed with the outcome of the vote given that both final offers provided for significant improvements to wages, benefits and working conditions.”

The offers, CP said, were “consistent with agreements recently reached with other CP unions in both the United States and Canada.”

A statement was not immediately available from Hajdu’s office Friday. Her previous statements have not mentioned the option of federal back-to-work legislation.

CP’s engineers and conductors last walked off the job in February 2015, ending their strike after one day under threat of back-to-work legislation from then-labour minister Kellie Leitch.

The TCRC-led unit’s contract that year was reached through arbitration, as was their previous deal, which followed a two-week strike and back-to-work legislation in 2012.

‘Mutually beneficial’

The labour unrest resumes at CP as TCRC-led conductors and engineers at its Montreal rival, Canadian National Railway (CN), ratify a five-year collective agreement.

The deal, reached with the help of federal mediators, runs through to the end of December 2022, the company announced Wednesday.

CN said the agreement offers “wage and benefit improvements in each year of the agreement, in line with similar contracts in the industry, and modifies work rules that were of concern to both CN and engineers.”

The deal “demonstrates CN’s ongoing commitment to working together with our employees and the TCRC to address workplace issues, in a respectful and mutually beneficial manner,” CN chief operating officer Mike Cory said in a release. — AGCanada.com Network

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