'Rail Is Our Lifeline': Businesses Brace For Possible CN/CPKC Shutdown Amid...

Reference: Found here

To business executive Daniel Peretz, the possibility of a railway strike or lockout is more than a headline.

⁘The rail service is our lifeline,⁘ he said. ⁘Without the rail service, we don't operate the business, we don't have 13 employees working here, we're unable to service a very important industry.⁘

Peretz is president and CEO of NexGen Polymers, a plastics material transloading facility operating out of a rail-served warehouse and office space just east of downtown London, Ont.

Outside the building's brick walls, there's a series of railway sidings that together hold about 40 railcars. Each graffiti-covered rail car holds plastic pellets delivered to the site by petroleum companies from across North America and overseas.

Twice a week, a Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) crew comes to pull away about 10 empties from NexGen and replace them with loaded railcars.

The plastic pellets — each about the size of an unpopped popcorn kernel — come delivered to Peretz's site in various colours and grades.

The pellets are vacuumed out of the railcars and into storage tanks for testing, mixing and eventual delivery by truck for customers. The manufacturers Peretz sells to turn the pellets into products and packaging that Canadians see on almost every store shelf.

A labour dispute at both Canadian National and CPKC threatens to derail not only Peretz's business, but the scores of manufacturers he supplies in a complex, just-in-time supply chain. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business has said the lockout could be devastating for small businesses that depend on rail service.