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railway workers
'Anti-Worker' Trudeau Forces Arbitration on Union in Industry-Backed Bid to Start Trains
"The Liberal government's decision to undermine 9,300 Canadian rail workers with binding arbitration sends a message to big corporations: Being a bad boss pays off," said the leader of the New Democratic Party.
Aug 23, 2024
The Canadian government on Thursday moved to end a lockout of workers at the country's two major rail corporations by forcing the two sides into arbitration, drawing sharp criticism from the union, which is challenging the move, and left-leaning political figures, including an ally of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) locked out about 9,300 engineers, conductors, and yard workers starting Thursday morning, shutting down the vast majority of the country's freight operations—a major disruption to the national economy and supplies chains across North America. The two sides had failed to reach a labor agreement after months of negotiating.
Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon made the announcement Thursday afternoon, referring the arbitration to the Canada Industrial Relations Board and ordering previous collective bargaining agreements to be extended until the CIRB process is complete. He said he expected trains to be running again within days.
The government's move was widely seen as a victory for company executives and a loss for 9,300 workers, whom worker advocates say were effectively stripped of their right to collectively bargain.
"By resorting to binding arbitration, the government has allowed CN and CPKC to sidestep a union determined to protect rail safety," Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) president Paul Boucher said in a statement. "Despite claiming to value and honor the collective bargaining process, the federal government quickly used its authority to suspend it, mere hours after an employer-imposed work stoppage."
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference's announced Friday it would challenge the constitutionality of the government move.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of the left-leaning New Democratic Party, which Trudeau's centrist Liberal Party relies on for voting support in Parliament, was blisteringly critical of his strategic ally following the government's announcement.
"The Liberal [government's] decision to undermine 9,300 Canadian rail workers with binding arbitration sends a message to big corporations like CN and CPKC: Being a bad boss pays off," Singh wrote on social media. "Justin Trudeau's actions are cowardly, anti-worker, and proof that he will always cave to corporate greed."
The Liberal govt's decision to undermine 9,300 Canadian rail workers with a binding arbitration sends a message to big corporations like CN & CPKC:
Being a bad boss pays off
Justin Trudeau's actions are cowardly, anti-worker, & proof that he will always cave to corporate greed. pic.twitter.com/p7U1mE4hlv
— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) August 22, 2024
Singh, a member of Parliament from the Vancouver metropolitan area, had warned Trudeau earlier in the week not to intervene, arguing that there was an ugly history of the Canadian government doing so in favor of industry interests. Trudeau and other government officials had said, before Thursday afternoon, that they preferred the two sides hash out their differences at the negotiating table.
However, the train stoppage led to mounting industry pressure, not just from the rail companies but also broader business interests who expressed concern about the impact on Canada's export-driven economy. Media outlets in Canada and the U.S. focused on the potential downsides of a protracted stoppage. Half of the Canada's exports are moved by rail, according to a railway industry lobby group, and more than $700 million USD worth of goods move on the country's tracks per day.
"The two major railways in Canada manufactured this crisis, took the country hostage, and manipulated the government to once again disregard the rights afforded to working-class Canadians," said Boucher, the union leader. "The TCRC is deeply disappointed by this shameful decision."
Rail operations remained in a complicated limbo on Friday as TCRC seemingly figured out how to react to the government's move. Initially, the union announced that while the CPKC work stoppage was ongoing, pending CIRB action, its CN members would resume work—and the company's trains began running across Canada at 7:00am—but later in the morning the union issued a 72-hour strike notice to CN.
The labor dispute centers on worker hours and conditions, and has parallels to a U.S. dispute in 2022, in which the U.S. government also stepped in to force a deal, angering many union leaders and working-class advocates.
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Canadian Rail Companies Lock Out Workers. Union Says They're Holding the Economy 'Hostage'
"The railroads don't care about farmers, small businesses, supply chains, or their own employees," a union president said. "Their sole focus is boosting their bottom line, even if it means jeopardizing the entire economy."
Aug 22, 2024
Both of Canada's major freight rail companies—key cogs in North America's supply chains—locked out workers and shut down operations on Thursday due to a labor dispute over worker hours and conditions, as a union leader said the companies were holding the Canadian economy "hostage."
The unprecedented stoppage comes with high stakes for the 9,300 affected engineers, conductors, and yard workers—and the country's export-driven economy. The two companies, Canadian National (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), own almost all of the tracks and haul more than $700 million USD worth of goods per day.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents the affected workers across both companies, said the two corporations had refused many of its "good faith" offers.
"Neither CN nor CPKC has relented on their push to weaken protections around rest periods and scheduling, increasing the risk of fatigue-related safety issues," the union said in a statement.
Paul Boucher, the union's president, said that "CN and CPKC have shown themselves willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck. The railroads don't care about farmers, small businesses, supply chains, or their own employees. Their sole focus is boosting their bottom line, even if it means jeopardizing the entire economy."
🚂 The men and women who keep our CN and CPKC trains running want decent working conditions that ensure safety for us all🚨. It’s time to give them our support.💪#Canlab pic.twitter.com/bGXQC1yuo1
— Teamsters Canada (@TeamstersCanada) August 21, 2024
Boucher said in a video statement on social media that the companies were holding Canada's economy "hostage" in an attempt to get the federal government, led by Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to force a binding arbitration agreement on the workers, an idea that business groups such as the Canadian Chamber of Commerce support.
So far, Trudeau's government hasn't done so and has instead pressured the two sides to come to a deal.
"Millions of Canadians, of workers, of farmers, of businesses right across the country are counting on both sides to do the work and get to a resolution," Trudeau told reporters Wednesday.
The Liberals, a centrist party, rely on the votes of the smaller New Democratic Party in Parliament. NDP was founded in part by organized labor and has warned Trudeau not to force the rail employees back to work.
"For too long we have seen Liberals and Conservatives interfere in these types of labor disputes to the advantage of the employer, to the detriment of the worker," Jagmeet Singh, NDP's leader, told reporters on Monday. "That is wrong, and we will oppose that."
In 2022, the U.S. federal government did take such action in a railway labor dispute. The U.S. Congress and President Joe Biden forced railworkers into an agreement that four key unions didn't agree to—angering many working-class Americans and progressive advocates, who argued that the right to strike had been nullified by the government intervention.
Canada has previously seen such federal interventions—or the threat of them, which can force workers' hand in negotiations—but in the past, disputes have occurred with just one of the major rail companies or the other, with their contracts expiring in alternating years.
This time, the timing has allowed for an industry-wide dispute, and a larger transportation disruption, including not just freight rail but also some passenger rail services that operate on lines owned by the two companies. There are no traffic controllers on the CPKC tracks, so passenger rail can't operate, The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.
The companies have used the disruption as part of the rationale for government action. CPKC openly called for binding arbitration on Thursday, saying in a statement that an agreement is "not within reach" and that the union "continues to make unrealistic demands that would fundamentally impair the railway's ability to serve our customers with a reliable and cost-competitive transportation service."
The union argues that CPKC wants to "gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions" and CN is trying to extend work days in western provinces, raising what the union calls a "a fatigue-related safety risk," The Guardian reported.
CN's net income for 2023 was $4 billion USD, while CPKC's was $2.9 billion USD.
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The Case for Public Ownership of US Railways
The toxic rail derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, was a symptom of a privatized rail system that prioritizes profit over public safety.
Aug 04, 2024
The National Transportation Safety Board announced in June that the infamous East Palestine, Ohio, freight train derailment was caused by a defective wheel bearing.
But that technical issue does not tell the whole story.
Federal investigators found that the railway company Norfolk Southern failed to communicate information to emergency responders in a timely manner, which contributed to the exposure of responders and the public to post-derailment hazards.
According to the June 2024 NTSB report abstract on the derailment and hazardous materials release, Norfolk Southern’s delayed transmission of consist information “also delayed the Ohio State Patrol’s recommendation to the incident commander that the shelter-in-place order be replaced by an evacuation.”
Norfolk Southern officials and contractors also provided misleading and incomplete information while advocating for an unnecessary vent and burn of tank cars carrying vinyl chloride. A vent-and-burn action is, according to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), a response of last resort.
A public rail system would directly benefit workers, trackside communities, small shippers, farmers, passengers, and the environment.
Norfolk Southern began planning the vent and burn shortly after the derailment, rejecting three other removal methods that could have been far less dangerous to responders and the people of East Palestine.
While there may be some temptation to view the catastrophic derailment in East Palestine as an unfortunate fluke, the truth is that disastrous events are predictable features of the American rail system.
Under the private ownership of the Class I railroads, we have seen time and again the callous prioritization of profit over people. For the sake of short-term profit, inspections are cut short, tracks and equipment are not maintained, and the rail workforce is gutted — features of an industrial system that calculates derailments as part of the cost of doing business.
The Class I railroads’ — the largest domestic rail carriers — pursuit of short-term profit has led to critical understaffing, longer trains, diminished maintenance of tracks and equipment, inadequate inspections, and other underinvestments that leave rail workers and trackside communities vulnerable to derailments and disasters.
The Class I railroad robber barons are perfectly willing to risk the lives of workers and people living in trackside communities so long as it means more money for them and their shareholders. This is not hyperbole.
Between 2013 and 2022, the rate of rail accidents rose 28 percent as a result of the implementation of Precision Scheduled Railroading (PSR). In short, the philosophy of PSR can be summed up as “speed over safety.” Since 2015, over 50,000 railroad workers — nearly 30 percent of the rail workforce — have been laid off. The workers who remain on the railroads experience chronic fatigue as a result of unpredictable schedules and critical understaffing.
Last spring, it was reported that Union Pacific, one of the six Class I rail carriers, undermined government safety assessments and retaliated against workers who reported rail car flaws. In 2023, the FRA found that 73% of Union Pacific locomotives have federal defects.
According to the NTSB, Norfolk Southern interfered with the East Palestine investigation and abused its status as a party to the probe. NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy revealed that she was threatened by Norfolk Southern during a private exchange with a senior company executive two weeks prior to the NTSB East Palestine board meeting.
These are but a few examples of the criminality and nefariousness that characterize the privately owned rail system. What’s more, even if one puts aside moral questions regarding the behavior of the Class I railroads, one finds an industry being strangled to death by a get-rich-quick scheme that victimizes workers and trackside communities, cheats small shippers, and — because the rail robber barons are completely allergic to capital expenditure —dooms the US rail system to degradation and ossification.
Another concern is how the American rail system is regulated. While the FRA is ostensibly tasked with overseeing and regulating US railroads, this arrangement becomes murky when one considers the significant degree of industry influence.
The Association of American Railroads (AAR), the industry group representing the interests of North America’s major rail corporations, sets its own safety standards and works closely with the FRA, effectively as an independent regulatory body. AAR even manages the FRA’s Transportation Technology Center through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Transportation Technology Center, Inc.
In the NTSB investigation of the East Palestine derailment, AAR’s standards for hot bearing alerts and alarms came under scrutiny, as they served as the guide for Norfolk Southern’s own criteria that contributed to the disaster. It is worth noting that under the Trump presidency, railroad industry executive Ronald Batory was made FRA administrator, further blurring the line between government regulator and regulated industry.
With the foxes running the henhouse, simple demands for more and better regulation of the railroad industry are inadequate. The real solution, advocated by Railroad Workers United (RWU) and allied organizations across the country, is public ownership of the railroads.
Last spring, RWU launched the Public Rail Ownership (PRO) campaign, building a diverse coalition including rank-and-file unionists, environmentalists, progressives, community activists, and others calling for a rail system that operates in the public interest.
The campaign has hosted webinars, published scholarly works such as Maddock Thomas’s “Putting America Back on Track: The Case for a 21st Century Public Rail System,” and attended union conferences to make its case.
What a publicly owned and operated rail system in the United States will look like has yet to be determined, but there are models that can serve as guides.
The task at hand is massive, and the road ahead is fraught with challenges. However, there is little hope for any improvement of the US rail system so long as it remains in the hands of the irresponsible and unaccountable Class I robber barons.
The rail system in the US is, compared to other countries, an anomaly in that it is predominantly owned by private companies. This was not always the case, and there’s inspiration to be found in US history for the development of a 21st century public rail system.
During World War I, the US rail system was nationalized amid a consensus that the private rail system was unable to serve the needs of the country during wartime. Under the control of the US Railroad Administration (USRA), the railroads operated far more efficiently and effectively than they had under private ownership.
Working conditions and service improved drastically, winning the support of workers, shippers, and much of the public. The nationalized rail system was so popular among rail workers that in a 1918 American Federation of Labor-sponsored referendum, the vote to keep the nation’s railroads in public hands was overwhelmingly in favor: 306,720 to 1,466.
A public rail system would directly benefit workers, trackside communities, small shippers, farmers, passengers, and the environment. The Class I carriers have made it clear that they have no intent to expand rail, or take the crucial step towards full catenary electrification.
Under public ownership, the fetters of the short-term profit motive would be cast off the rail system, opening the door to large-scale infrastructure modernization and expansion projects, creating jobs in construction and spurring economic development in neglected areas of the country. A publicly owned and operated rail system would also create thousands of railroad jobs, as the stripped-to-the-bone PSR model advocated by the Class I carriers would be destined for the dustbin.
The task at hand is massive, and the road ahead is fraught with challenges. However, there is little hope for any improvement of the US rail system so long as it remains in the hands of the irresponsible and unaccountable Class I robber barons. RWU and its allies invite all organizations and individuals to get involved in the Public Rail Ownership campaign, and help make public rail a reality. For more information, please visit publicrailnow.org.
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