The President of the Keystone Agricultural Producers Jill Verwey is very disappointed to see we are on the verge of a major rail strike.
Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian National and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference have been at the bargaining table for months.
On Sunday, the union announced that unless the parties reached a last-minute agreement, workers would be off the job as of 12:01 a.m. Eastern time Thursday.
The strike involving over 9000 rail workers for CN and CPKC would effectively shut down the rail system, halting grain movement to terminal and export markets which would create a major backlog right through the grain system. There's also overwhelming concern about the impact this strike could have on Canada's reputation as a reliable supplier for our customers, who now will have to look elsewhere to fill their product needs.
Verwey says the timing of the strike and its potential impact is critical.
"If you're looking at the worst time of the season for something like this to happen it is definitely heading into harvest. Not a favorable time for this to happen."
She says we need to do everything we can to avoid a strike and is encouraging everyone to get involved in trying to reach out to federal MP's calling for a solution to get everyone back to work.
KAP and other ag commodity groups and organizations are calling on producers to take part in a major electronic letter campaign at #stopthestrike.ca calling on Ottawa to take action to stop the rail strike.
"Certainly those letters will go to the Minister of Labor, Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, as well as the Minister of Agriculture and their local MP. For our Manitoba producers if they are unsure of who their MP is, they can certainly reach out to our KAP office through kap.ca.
To hear Glenda-Lee's conversation with the President of KAP Jill Verwey click on the link below.