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Importers and exporters are left with few options as a near-total rail shutdown in Canada risks delaying ocean shipments, spiking freight costs and straining the busiest U.S. ports.

The Canadian railway system has been struck with two major work stoppages amid failed labor negotiations Aug. 22.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is urging Canada’s two largest railways and unionized workers to reach a deal to avert a strike that businesses warn will cause significant harm to the economy.

Canadian businesses are warning about potential long-term damage to the economy if railway and port strikes go ahead and choke the country’s vital trading arteries.

Nearly 100 Swissport cargo workers at the Denver International Airport are on strike Dec. 11, protesting unsafe work conditions they say the company has been ignoring for more than a year.

More than 1,100 unionized DHL Express workers walked off the job at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, a critical logistics hub for the package delivery company.

The labor conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark where the country’s largest trade union said Dec. 5 they will take action in solidarity with Swedish workers.

A six-week United Auto Workers strike at Ford cut sales by about 100,000 vehicles for the year and cost the company $1.7 billion in lost profits, the automaker said Nov. 30.

Mack Trucks on Nov. 15 announced that members of the United Auto Workers union ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement with the company, covering about 3,900 employees.

Pressure is growing on Tesla in Sweden, where a trade union is demanding that the Texas-based automaker sign a collective bargaining agreement, which most employees in the country have.