Canadian Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon has rejected a request by Canadian National Railway to initiate binding arbitration in a labor dispute with the Teamsters union, a spokesman for the minister said on Thursday. In a letter to CN Rail's lawyers, MacKinnon said it was the shared responsibility of the company and the union to negotiate in good faith. The letter, sent on Wednesday, was released by the Teamsters. Talks between CN Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City - the country's two largest rail companies - and the Teamsters are deadlocked, with each side blaming the other. CN Rail said it was disappointed by MacKinnon's decision, saying he would have to reconsider if the union did not "get serious and engage meaningfully at the negotiating table".

In FY 2017, the Postal Service recorded its first net loss from operations, since FY 2013, of $1.3 billion, largely due to declining mail volume, the expiration of the exigent surcharge, and higher operating costs. However, including non-cash workers’ compensation costs and retirement expenses, the net loss from operations increases to a total net loss of $2.7 billion in FY 2017. This is an improvement of $2.8 billion compared to the total net loss in FY 2016. This improvement is the result of a $4.8 billion decrease in the retiree health benefits expense, and a $3.4 billion decrease in the non-cash workers’ compensation expense, offset by $2.4 billion in increased expenses that resulted from provisions in the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA) for unfunded retirement benefit costs. Liquidity also continues to improve in FY 2017 and is at its highest level since FY 2007. However, liabilities on and off-balance sheet for pension and annuitant health benefits continue to threaten the improvements in liquidity. The Postal Service experienced a decline in revenue for most of its Market Dominant products. Consumer price index-based price increases were not sufficient to offset the decline in mail volume and the reduction in additional revenue from the expiration of the exigent surcharge. Overall Market Dominant Mail and Services revenue declined 7.7 percent from the previous year. First-Class Mail revenue declined by 6.7 percent while Marketing Mail revenue declined by 5.7 percent. Periodicals revenue also saw a decline of 8.8 percent. Conversely, package services revenue increased by 0.3 percent compared to FY 2016. Click Read More below for additional information.

American Trucking Associations’ advanced seasonally adjusted (SA) For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index increased 0.5% in May after falling 1.4% in April. In May, the index equaled 117.1 (2015=100) versus 116.5 in April. “The transition in the freight market continued in May with the index hitting the second highest level since the pandemic started. Specifically on the market transition, ATA’s tonnage index is dominated by contract freight. The traditional spot market has slowed as freight softens, but these contract carriers are backfilling any losses in freight with loads from shippers that is reducing spot market exposure,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Essentially the market is transitioning back to pre-pandemic shares of contract versus spot market. “Overall, economic indicators that are important to trucking slowed in May, including retail sales, housing starts, and manufacturing output,” he said. Compared with May 2021, the SA index increased 3.7%, which was the ninth straight year-over-year gain and the largest since April 2021. In April, the index was up 2.5% from a year earlier. In 2022, year-to-date and compared with same period in 2021, tonnage was up 2.7%.