Norfolk Southern announced on Friday that it will close all intermodal facility gates to Canadian National Railway immediately, due to an embargo placed by the Canadian railway on all its intermodal shipments.

The embargo began on Friday after Canadian National was threatened with a strike by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Union, which could start as early as August 22.

Canadian National also began a gradual shutdown of its entire network. On Friday, both the railroad and the union are back at bargaining tables.

The union also targets its counterpart Canadian Pacific Kansas City and demands better wages and benefits including provisions for fatigue and crew scheduling. (Reporting and editing by Alan Barona, Maju Samuel, and Abhinav Paramar in Bengaluru)

(source: Reuters)