Reading Time: < 1 minute Unionized workers on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Ontario and Quebec have voted their approval of the agreement that brought them in off the picket line. Unifor, which represents about 360 Seaway workers across five locals in the two provinces, announced Thursday its members had voted to ratify a three-year agreement retroactive to April 1. […] Read more

Seaway workers ratify labour deal
Deal ended one-week strike on waterway

Striking Olymel workers accept new six-year deal
Slaughter could restart Friday at earliest, company says
Reading Time: 3 minutes Striking workers at a major hog slaughter and cutting plant in Quebec’s Beauce region have agreed to a new six-year contract that could see slaughter resume Friday at the earliest. Olymel and the CSN-affiliated Syndicat des travailleurs d’Olymel Vallee-Jonction (STOVJ) announced Tuesday afternoon that unionized workers at the company’s Vallee-Jonction plant, south of Quebec City, […] Read more

National seeds sector groups put merger plan to vote
New organization, if approved, would be called Seeds Canada
Reading Time: 2 minutes Members of five national seed sector organizations are set to vote this summer on their proposed amalgamation under a single banner, Seeds Canada. A “detailed ratification package” has gone out to members of the Canadian Seed Growers’ Association (CSGA), Canadian Seed Institute (CSI), Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA), Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA) and Commercial […] Read more

Parliament hustles through CUSMA ratification
Implementing bill passes before Commons adjourns until April 20
Reading Time: 2 minutes Ottawa | Reuters — Canada’s Parliament rushed through ratification of the new Canada-U.S.-Mexico (CUSMA) trade pact on Friday before taking a three-week break to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, a top government official said. Canada was the last of the three signatories to formally adopt the pact, prompting congratulations from the United States […] Read more

CN conductors approve post-strike deal
Reading Time: 2 minutes Canadian National Railway’s conductors and yard workers have voted for at least another two and a half years of labour peace with the company. The affected employees, members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, voted 91.3 per cent to ratify a three-year contract with CN, retroactive to last July 23, the union said in a […] Read more

Trump signs CUSMA pact
Canada's ratification still to come
Reading Time: 3 minutes Washington | Reuters — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a new North American trade agreement during an outdoor ceremony at the White House attended by about 400 guests — but not the key Democrats who helped secure congressional passage of the deal. Trump, on trial in the U.S. Senate on charges of abusing power […] Read more

Trudeau wants CUSMA deal ratified quickly
Reading Time: 2 minutes Winnipeg | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Tuesday urged legislators to quickly approve a new continental trade pact but the main opposition party said it wanted to study the deal, indicating the ratification process could drag on. Canada is the only one of the three signatories not to have formally blessed the […] Read more

Canada could be last to ratify CUSMA deal, Trudeau says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canada could be the last of the three North American countries to ratify a new trade deal, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday, indicating that his plan to match the U.S. timetable was set to fail. Trudeau’s Liberal government said from the start it wanted to work in tandem with […] Read more

A ‘little more work’ needed on CUSMA deal, Trudeau says
Reading Time: < 1 minute Ottawa | Reuters — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday said a little more work needed to be done on a new continental trade deal which has run into opposition from some U.S. Democrats over labour and environmental provisions. Officials are trying to agree on a series of tweaks to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (CUSMA) […] Read more

Grain groups seek ‘essential service’ status for rail
Reading Time: 3 minutes With Canadian National Railway’s conductors and yard workers headed back to work, several Canadian grain groups now want to head off any future job action in the rail sector. CN and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference announced separately Tuesday they had reached a tentative agreement ending an eight-day strike by over 3,000 unionized staff. The […] Read more