It’s time to act before things go off the rails.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference has received lockout notices for close to 10,000 CN and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railway employees. Unless a last-minute agreement is reached, a work stoppage will occur this Thursday, August 22 at 00:01.
The main obstacles to reaching an agreement are company demands, not union proposals.
Both companies claim to be affected by labour shortages and are seeking ways to maximize output from their crews, asking for significant concessions over scheduling and fatigue management that will lead to safety risks. In addition, CN is attempting to impose a forced relocation plan that would see workers ordered to move across the country for months at a time, tearing apart families.
Rail safety and forced relocation at the heart of the impasse
If the companies get their way, train crews would be forced to stay awake even longer, raising the risk of derailments and other accidents.
Critically, rail workers are already held to exhausting work schedules; many need to remain available and on call for almost 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Once called in, they have only two hours to report to work, often without knowing when they will be able to return home (the same day, the next day, or even later.)
CN and CPKC, by refusing to negotiate in good faith, not responding to numerous union proposals, and locking out thousands of railway workers, are responsible for the interruptions to supply chains.
Compromising on safety and tearing apart families are not solutions to understaffing. Both companies should be looking to improve working conditions and adopting a more humane approach to attract more personnel.
“Rail workers have fought for a safer and more humane industry for decades, and we will not accept moving backwards,” declared Paul Boucher, President, Teamsters Canada Rail Conference
Support rail workers who dare demand decent working conditions that ensure safety for all Canadians!
For media enquiries, please contact:
Media requests:
Christopher Monette
Director of Public Affairs
Teamsters Canada
Cell. : 514-226-6002
[email protected]
At over 130,000 members, Teamsters Canada is the country’s largest transportation and supply chain union. It’s also the largest union in the federally regulated private sector.
