Vol. 79/No. 35      October 5, 2015

For decades rail bosses have boosted profits by attacking the jobs and working conditions of workers operating trains, maintaining tracks and in all aspects of rail transportation. They’ve slashed crew sizes from five to two, and in some cases, like the Lac-Mégantic run, to a single person. On-call operation, 12-hour shifts, ubiquitous fatigue, excessively long and heavy trains, and a culture of “blame the worker” whenever anything goes wrong are what rail workers face today.

These conditions made the disaster in Lac-Mégantic — and many since, including the derailment of seven tank cars loaded with ethanol in South Dakota Sept. 19 — inevitable. And they will continue to happen until we win workers control over safety on the job.

Conditions like these are all too familiar for oil and construction workers, nurses, truckers and others facing boss speedup and assaults on schedules and safety.

Workers in Lac-Mégantic are fighting to win safety on the rails. They have called a march along the tracks Oct. 11 to demand the city get an injunction against trains carrying hazardous cargo until the notoriously decrepit tracks are fixed. And they tell anyone who will listen that the government and the railroad owners should be on trial, not Harding and Labrie.

This is an important class battle. Lumber mill and paper plant bosses in Quebec and Maine depend on these tracks. And the $72 billion Fortress Investment Group that now owns the railroad depends on profits from volatile oil traffic to keep it going.

Government authorities — beholden to the bosses for whom they rule and who authorized the railroad to run oil trains with a one-person crew — are determined to pin the blame on Harding and Labrie and let themselves and profit-hungry rail owners off the hook.

Join the fight to defend Harding and Labrie! Tell your co-workers and your union. Send contributions and letters of support to their union, the Steelworkers, 565 boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100, Montreal, Quebec H2M 2V8, or to the Tom Harding Defense Fund, First Niagara Bank, 25 McClellan Drive, Nassau, NY 12123. If you can, make your way to Lac-Mégantic Oct. 11 to join the march for rail safety.

An injury to one is an injury to all!
 
 
Related articles:
Chicago conference: ‘Fight for rail safety!’
Build Oct. 11 safety protest in Lac-Mégantic
Fired Walmart workers demand jobs back as Calif. store reopens
Petition: ‘No hazardous cargo til tracks are fixed’
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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