The Canadian rail strike ended yesterday some 18 hours after it started as authorities moved rapidly to avert an economic disaster. 

Canada’s two biggest railways shut down yesterday after a midnight deadline passed without an agreement over pay conditions.

The stoppage of work by 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers at Canadian National Railway Co (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) marked the first-ever simultaneous shutdown at the country’s main railroad operators. However, the Canadian government moved quickly to get the country’s industrial relations board to issue a back-to-work order with the railroad companies ending their lockout yesterday evening and trains expected to restart operating within days. 

As well as requesting a back-to-work order, Steven MacKinnon, Canada’s labour minister, asked the board to start a process of binding arbitration between the Teamsters union and the companies, and extend the terms of the current labour agreements until new agreements have been signed.

CN said yesterday it could take the company a week or more to catch up on shipments.