The strike at Canadian Pacific Rail is only two days old but the federal government started considering back to work legislation before 24 hours was up.

Saskatchewan's Minister of Energy and Resources, Bill Boyd showed his support for the move to send rail workers back to work in a letter to the Labour Minister on Wednesday.

He says the longer the strike drags on, the more it will impact industries in Saskatchewan.

"Agriculture will be significantly impacted. Potash sales will be impacted dramatically, they ship just-in-time shipments to the west coast for delivery around the world," Boyd said.

Even in a short time, he said a strike at CP rail has an immediate impact because the industries use the rail lines to get to markets around the world.

Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt is considering introducing the bill on Monday.

Boyd does not think next week will be too late, but he repeated the message that this issue is very time sensitive.

"I would just say though that every day that goes by, there's a loss of significant amounts of income to the people of Saskatchewan," Boyd noted.

Over 4000 workers went on stirke Wednesday trying to put pressure on the company to reach a new deal.

A total of 35 workers were off the job in Regina. Local vice chair for the conductors, Dave Hariniuk said he understands the importance of their jobs to the local economy, but added that they also need to consider their wages and benefits.

Some of the issues brought up included a potential 40 per cent cut to pensions, a higher wage package and a better system to get reliable time off.

Edited by News Talk Radio's Adriana Christianson