Vol. 80/No. 20 May 23, 2016
Rail workers respond to frame-up in Quebec disaster
One policy at the now defunct Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway — ordering workers not to use automatic air brakes when parking a train — was revealed by reporter Grant Robertson in the Globe and Mail March 7.
The Railway Association of Canada, an organization of rail bosses, immediately contested Robertson’s article. In an open letter to the Globe, RAC President Michael Bourque stated that automatic air brakes are not reliable and should never be used as a back-up system to secure a train. He repeated the claim, pushed by the rail bosses and government from the beginning, that the disaster was the fault of the engineer for not setting enough hand brakes.
The engineer, Thomas Harding, was the only crew member for that train because of a special dispensation from the federal government to the MMA bosses. He had to secure the train by himself at the end of a 12-hour shift.
Harding and train controller Richard Labrie, both members of United Steelworkers Local 1976, have been framed up by Ottawa on 47 counts of criminal negligence which could bring life in prison if convicted. Low-level former MMA official Jean Demaitre faces the same charges. June 7 is the date of their next court hearing in Lac-Mégantic.
The Globe received numerous letters from railroad workers who strongly disagreed with Bourque.
Ed Michael, an engineer who ran freight trains for 42 years before retiring in 2012, wrote that parking a train without using the automatic air brake as a backup is “unequivocally negligent.”
Employees of the eight largest North American railways signed a letter by locomotive engineer Ron Kaminkow, general secretary of Rail Workers United, Robertson reported. The policy the Railway Association was defending “is foolhardy and can only court disasters like the one at Lac-Mégantic,” they wrote.
Robertson wrote April 28 that after being told of these criticisms, Bourque withdrew his letter to the Globe.
‘Gov’t not responsible for disaster’
The Globe also reported May 2 that Ottawa shielded itself from lawsuits from victims and creditors in relation to the Lac-Mégantic disaster by quietly paying $75 million in “out-of-court-settlements.” Transport Minister Marc Garneau reiterated that government officials “don’t acknowledge that we had any responsibility” for the disaster.
This callous declaration followed an April 26 visit by Garneau to Lac-Mégantic where on behalf of the Liberal government he rejected a number of demands put forward by the Citizens’ and Groups Coalition for Rail Safety, disappointing a packed audience at a town hall meeting in the Sports Centre.
A March 14 letter from the Coalition to Garneau had called for the establishment of an “independent investigation” into the causes of the disaster. “Who,” the letter asked, “was the individual in Transport Canada who approved the MMA request for a one-person train crew in order to save money on one salary and why was this person not charged with criminal negligence?”
On April 28 Garneau stated that for reasons of national security, rail companies would not be required to divulge information on dangerous cargo 24 hours before they enter a community, a demand raised by the Canadian Federation of Municipalities.
Labor support against frame-up
The defense of Harding and Labrie is gaining support in the labor movement.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local Division 482 in Washington, D.C., adopted a resolution of solidarity at its April 14 meeting. “All railroad workers — and indeed all workers in North America — have a stake in the fight to defeat the efforts of the railroad carriers and the Canadian government to frame up” Harding and Labrie, wrote Division 482 President Peter Sullivan in a letter to members of USW Local 1976 in Quebec.
Harding and Labrie, he continued, “are being scapegoated for the negligent and dangerous practices of the MMA railway and the government’s failure to properly regulate the safety of the railroad… . We demand that all charges against them be dropped and we urge all railroad workers and concerned citizens to support the defense efforts. An injury to one is an injury to all!”
Send solidarity messages for the Harding and Labrie defense to their union, USW 1976 / Section locale 1976, 2360 De Lasalle, Suite 202, Montreal, QC H1V 2L1. Email: info@1976usw.ca . Send copies to: Thomas Walsh, 165 Rue Wellington N. Suite 310, Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1H 5B9. Email: thomaspwalsh@hotmail.com. Send contributions in Canada to Syndicat des Métallos, 565, boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100, Montreal, QC H2M 2V8. In the U.S. send checks to Tom Harding Defense Fund, First Niagara Bank, 25 McClellan Drive, Nassau, NY 12123.
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