Currently, the job action appears limited to Canada based train crews, although the movement of bulk commodities throughout North America (in
anticipation of the merger,
Canadian Pacific and Kansas City Southern have been
coordinating their freight trains)
is at risk. Because of certain elected officials reluctance to authorize pipelines, a lot of
crude oil moves by rail, and with the planting season about to begin, the fertilizer dealers are stocking up.
Crude oil and fertilizer are also two of the products most affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine, which are the “major agriculture producing nations” the senators were referencing in the letter. Oil has been at the center of media attention, but as Andrew Stuttaford has written about before, fertilizer shortages could end up being much more damaging. Food is truly a universal input.
Yes, and there's nothing like a good crisis to encourage people to ask for better working conditions.
Given the war, U.S. and Canadian grain producers are under pressure to produce more than normal this season to at least partially compensate for the lost production in Russia and Ukraine. That means they’ll need a lot of fertilizer. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, is home to Nutrien, the world’s largest fertilizer company, and is served by one of the densest parts of CP’s rail network. Without CP operating as normal, many farmers on both sides of the border will have a hard time getting fertilizer.
This work stoppage might only be a foreshadowing of what is to come, however. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which represents West Coast dockworkers in the U.S. and Canada, has been gearing up for labor negotiations when its current contract expires on July 1.
Just watch, some Washington politician will accuse the fertilizer producers (
themselves a
concentrated industry?) of
price gouging.
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