The union representing Canadian Pacific Kansas City conductors is polling members on a possible strike, claiming the railroad took advantage of a service crisis to make workplace job changes on the former Kansas City Southern.
The International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers-Transportation Division (SMART-TD) Local 457’s General Committee of Adjustment is polling members on a possible strike vote, General Chairman Samuel Habjan confirmed in a brief phone interview with FreightWaves late Saturday (July 12, 2025). The results of the poll are expected today. Habjan would not speculate on the results of the poll, or the union’s plans.
An email signed by “union members local 781” and obtained by FreightWaves claimed that the railroad was using the service crisis to cut jobs and reduce some employees’ working hours.
The email said that CPKC was already facing a personnel shortage prior to the May switch to CP’s computer system on the former KCS; issues with that cutover led to significant service issues on parts of the legacy KCS system [see “CPKC system cutover triggers …,” Trains News Wire, June 10, 2025]. The email claims the issues reflect the railroad’s adoption of Precision Scheduled Railroading operating practices, as well as aggressive cost cutting.
“Earlier this month, SMART-TD reached an agreement with CPKC to permit the temporary use of “loan-out” crews from other territories to help address the shortage,” the email stated. “However, following this arrangement, CPKC management proceeded to cut approximately half of the established yard jobs in Shreveport (La.) Terminal. They placed the loan-out crews on a separate [job] board and began assigning them work in place of long-standing KCS and Louisiana & Arkansas [Railway] employees.
“This decision has effectively restricted the seniority rights of the union employees already on the property and further strained local operations.”
Seniority is based on an employee’s length of service with a railroad, and often dictates which job assignments an employee can choose from.
CPKC merged with KCS in April 2023, creating the first single-line carrier serving the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
The service disruptions caused significant problems for shippers on legacy KCS lines, including chemical producers in Louisiana, forcing CPKC to deploy personnel to verify the location of individual railcars by hand. Some companies said they moved traffic from rail to truck in order to maintain operations.
The Surface Transportation Board ultimately asked CPKC for information on the issues and its recovery plans [see “Regulators ask CPKC to outline …,” News Wire, June 17, 2025]. In its most recent update to the board last week, CPKC reported overall improvement but said on-time performance for merchandise trains and dwell at some yards remains a problem [see “CPKC reports mixed progress …,” News Wire, July 11, 2025].
CPKC had no immediate comment on the email.
— A version of this article originally appeared at FreightWaves.com.
