AP was ahead of the coverage of a railroads labor dispute that stopped trains in Canada

By Rob Gillies and Josh Funk

After Canada’s two largest railroads ground to a halt following a labor dispute that couldn’t be resolved before the overnight deadline last Thursday, Canada bureau chief Rob Gillies and U.S. Midwest newsperson and rail writer Josh Funk worked around to clock to tell the impact and any details of negotiations to solve the crisis. The pair ensured AP was the first to break some of the news and remained first on developments throughout the week. 

Gillies used a well-placed source to break the news that Canada’s government ordered the lockouts to end just over 16 hours after they began because government officials couldn’t bear to watch the economic disaster unfold if the two dominant railroads remained shut down at the same time. Trudeau previously declined to order the deadlocked talks to binding arbitration for fear of angering the union ahead of next year’s federal election. But the shutdown was already having impacts on both the Canadian and U.S. economies.

Other media including the Globe and Mail noted the AP newsbreak and two former Canadian transport ministers retweeted the AP news alert.

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