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The shutdown that briefly stalled billions in freight by the two largest Canadian railroads could take a week or more to recover fully. Though the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City unionized workforce returned to work Monday, and train movements were halted for less than 24 hours, CN and CPKC had embargoed shipments for [...]

The  Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) ruled on Saturday to allow imposing binding arbitration to end job action in Canada’s rail sector which supported Canadian Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon’s directive to assist the railroads and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union parties in settling outstanding terms of their collective agreement. The freight rail networks of Canadian [...]

The NCBFAA Transportation Committee wants to remind our members that the Canadian rail strike threat remains in place until the contracts between Canada’s two Class 1 railroads and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) are reached. TCRC union leaders on Friday afternoon challenged the Canadian government’s Aug. 22 labor contract arbitration order, which canceled the [...]

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) is seeking an almost 80% wage increase over the life of its next six-year contract with maritime employers on the East and Gulf coasts. Two ocean carrier sources familiar with the negotiations told the Journal of Commerce that the ILA is currently seeking a $5-per-hour increase in wages for each [...]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published a reminder for the industry of the resources available to help firms comply with the new registration and listing requirements established by the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 (MoCRA) by July 1, 2024, consistent with FDA’s Compliance Policy for Cosmetic Product Facility Registration and Cosmetic [...]

  The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) announced earlier this week the suspension of talks with the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) scheduled for Tuesday, June 11, 2024. This decision arises amidst ongoing negotiations of local agreements under the coast-wide Master Contract, set to expire on September 30, 2024. The ILA canceled Master Contract talks with [...]

  June 10, 2024. As part of the Unified Command response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving today restored the Fort McHenry Federal Channel to its original operational dimensions of 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep for [...]

Ten weeks after the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, salvage crews successfully removed the final large steel truss segment blocking the 700-foot-wide Fort McHenry Federal Channel on June 3-4. Using concrete breakers, underwater surveys, and oxyacetylene torches, they separated tons of concrete roadway, cable, and steel rebar from "Section 4C" while removing debris [...]

On behalf of John S. Connor, we truly appreciate the heroic efforts of the Unified Command in refloating and moving the M/V Dali to a local marine terminal. This milestone allows all pre-collapse deep-draft commercial vessels to enter and exit the Port of Baltimore.  At the outset of this tragic event, the work to reopen [...]

The refloat and transit of the M/V Dali from its current location to a local marine terminal has begun morning. Safety remains the Unified Command’s emphasis, as it has been during the execution of all tasks in the nearly eight weeks of salvage operations. The refloat and transit sequence is deliberately designed to ensure all [...]