Sighs of relief could be heard across the country when federal Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon announced that he was sending the two railway labour disputes to arbitration. Traffic, promised the minister, will resume “within days.” MacKinnon acted under the Canada Labour Code which allows the government to refer a labour dispute to the Canada Industrial Relations Board. On Saturday, the board duly ordered the railway employees back to work and imposed arbitration.

Following months of tense labour negotiations, on Thursday Canada’s two rail networks, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), announced they were locking out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers.

The union involved, the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, was not happy with the board’s order, saying they will comply with the ruling but will appeal. Union President Paul Boucher complained ”It signals to corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in to break a union.”

Their political ally, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, seconded the criticism, accusing the feds of undermining workers. “The Liberals’ actions are cowardly, anti-worker and proof that they will always cave to corporate greed, and Canadians will always pay for it,” he said, not mincing words.

I frequently agree with Mr. Singh, but not this time, nor do I see how the government is, in Mr. Boucher’s words, breaking the union. The NDP should be concerned about the welfare of all workers, not just those in the railway industry.

Workers in agriculture, mining, forestry, energy, retail, manufacturing and construction would be harmed by a rail stoppage. Half of all Canadian exports, in our export-dependent economy, are moved by trains.

And not just freight was threatened. Passenger trains’ rail lines in our three major cities run on CPCK tracks and would have to shut down without traffic controllers to dispatch them. Tens of thousands of commuters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver would be scrambling for a new route to work on Monday.

Workers in other countries would also have been affected. We are a major exporter of several globally important commodities. Supply-chain disruptions in the United States and other countries were threatened (with attendant economic consequences in this country). Lord knows, we have all had enough supply-chain disruption.

I am a strong supporter of unions. Nonetheless in this instance I support the government decision. Generally, collective bargaining has proved to be the best approach to ensuring a fair deal between capital and labour. However, there must be a limit to how much damage to third parties companies can do with their lockouts or unions with their strikes, and in this case the potential damage was well beyond any reasonable limit. The government is, after all, responsible for protecting the interests of all of us.

The Teamsters are demanding better wages and benefits with particular concern about scheduling and fatigue management. I sincerely hope they get a generous agreement, but best they achieve it without further endangering our recovering economy.