Vol. 80/No. 6 February 15, 2016
Canadian rail workers fight for safety on the job
The fight against unsafe conditions caused by overwork and inadequate rest was at the heart of a one-day nationwide Teamsters strike in February 2015 against Canadian Pacific by engineers, conductors and yardmen. Union officials called the strike off after one day and agreed to mediated arbitration when the government threatened back-to-work legislation. The arbitrated settlement was announced Dec. 8, but unsafe conditions persist.
“A major problem in our lives today is long hours,” a Canadian Pacific engineer, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retaliation, told the Militant here Jan. 15. “The ruling doesn’t fully address the issue. Twice a month, the arbitrator says, you have the opportunity to have two days off in a row. But the settlement didn’t address going to work rested every day.”
Some engineers and conductors must be available for work 12 hours a day, six days a week. “Say you get in at midnight,” the engineer said. “You book your eight hours’ rest till morning. But then you sit, waiting, say till midnight, when you’re called. Now you’ve got to stay awake till noon the next day. And many crews work 70-hour weeks.”
The situation is made worse because bosses at both Canadian National Railway, Canada’s largest rail carrier, and Canadian Pacific have laid off conductors and other workers in recent months due to the sharp decline of oil transport as the crisis in production and trade grows.
The company blames the union for any unsafe conditions. “CP has been taking steps to ensure crew members take more rest, but union collective agreements have been a barrier to change,” management spokesman Martin Cej told CBC News.
Union fights for safety
Last year Canadian Pacific told the union it will be expanding use of remote control equipment on main tracks in seven areas, including Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Regina. The union calls for stricter regulation, saying it can be dangerous.Train operation by rail workers using remote control belt packs to run locomotives while standing on the ground or riding another vehicle has been permitted by the Canadian government since the late 1980s. It is currently used mainly in rail yards to assemble trains.
U.S. rail bosses won the right to implement radio-controlled operation of crewless engines in 2001. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers called a strike, but the walkout was outlawed by a federal judge.
Four cars being moved by remote control derailed Dec. 8 in Canadian Pacific’s Scotford Yard northeast of Edmonton, spilling almost 100,000 liters (26,000 gallons) of toxic styrene. The Transportation Safety Board says it is investigating the incident.
There were four other accidents involving radio-controlled train operation, in Scotford Yard, Calgary and Saskatoon, Doug Finnson, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference president, said in a Jan. 5 radio interview. “In Saskatoon, it was a 12,000-ton CN train. The operator couldn’t stop it,” he said.
Canadian Pacific wants to eliminate any limitation on its use of remote control operations on mainline track, Finnson said. “I think that’s grossly irresponsible.”
“We’ve already seen what can happen when a small operator can be allowed to cut corners in Quebec,” he added, referring to the July 2013 oil train derailment and fire in Lac-Mégantic that killed 47 people.
Bosses on the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic, responsible for the disaster in Quebec, were boosters of radio-controlled engine operation, part of winning special government approval to run their oil trains with a single-person crew.
The Transportation Safety Board rejected Canadian National’s proposal to train new employees as engineers, instead of requiring two years’ experience, Finnson said. “But workers with less than two years experience are operating belt packs.”
Related articles:
Quebec unionists protest frame-up of rail workers
On the Picket Line
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