Decertification

CN workers need to start the process to get rid of their american union. UTU is, obviously, not working in the best interest of CN workers. I guess Thompson doesn't feel his union is too large and doesn't like canadian union dues.

Sad story

Sad story about Canada, corrupt Canadian politicians allowing their US corporate masters run the show. Why not just let the big kahuna Bush run us too!

continued devolution

Just as, in the time of the formation of the union movement, there were divisions and splits, factions and individual workers whom sided against the strike actions (and were punished by their union or company masters). So too now, with the collapse of the frat buddies Social Democracies and the Union Movements, will these factions, divisions and splits return...as will violence in the future.

retired trainman speaks

Here's what a retired train driver friend of mine has to say about the situation:

There have been several derailments which have occurred recently involving managers working as conductors, switch foremen and helpers. None have been that serious as yet, but what do you think of CN managers, (and remember many of these managers have little or no experience in the type of work they are trying to do) operating trains which carry things like caustic soda, chlorine, anhydrous ammonia, flammable gases, and all manner of other dangerous commodities, through the heavily populated areas of Surrey, New West, Burnaby, and east Vancouver. The tracks they operate on have been maintained with the same minimalist approach that has become CN's trademark.

I think many people are not aware that CN runs right through Vancouver and that the potential for greater accidents than Lake Wabamun, and Chekamus canyon are very high right now. They should be concerned.

There is a website at http://www.runningtrades.com, which had a number of pictures taken by striking workers showing derailments and damage created by managers, until the pictures link mysteriously went down yesterday. There is a pretty good insider's assessment there about the rift between the international UTU and the Canadian UTU at http://www.cordovastation.ca/newsRail/2007/07022105.htm . Obviously a lot of this stuff has it's own bias but still worth the reading.

I've wondered how CN Rail gets away with all this. I did more snooping around for connections between Harper's government and CN Rail. Harper's director of Communications, Sandra Buckler, used to be a professional lobbyist and CN Rail was one of her clients in 2005. That may not mean anything but it's typical of the way corporations like CN rail get what they want. Transport Canada, who should be looking into this, apparently has a board made up of industry lobbyists.

Echoes of the warnings made by Don Faulkner

Don Faulkner and another longtime B.C. Rail trainman were killed last June on a runaway engine that derailed and plunged off the mountainside near Lytton, B.C.

Before his death, Don spoke constantly of the sagging safety measures and resulting problems on operations which had once been B.C. Rail. Don sounded much the same as Biscotti's friend (above). I wish we knew this old trainman's name, but I hope he hears our appreciation for his concerns.

Some of the facts should become clear, in the BC Rail trial, to explain the decisions surrounding this unfortunate sale (or 999-year lease) of B.C. Rail operations to CN Rail. Like, why, why, why?

other deaths on CN lines

Let's also remember conductor Ken LeQuesne and engineer Art McKay who died in a fire when a rotting bridge collapsed under their train on May 14th, 2003 near McBride, BC.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/03/02/mcbride-train050302.html

btw my friend may be retired, but I wouldn't describe him as "old"!

Its time!

Buy CN Rail - I just did. Ticker symbol CNR on the TSX.

Murdock

Unions are clinging to life. Gordon Campbell will go down as a legend. He absolutely crushed them!

They used to be a real threat - now they're little more than a joke. Even the business community doesn't take them seriously anymore. The vast majority of union workers are nearing retirement. Its a matter of time until time cures us of this plague.

They don't even have what it takes anymore to organize themselves for a proper rally! They realize they've been defeated.

biscotti

Several friends also retired young from CN. Most of them could see the writing on the wall and didn't care to keep working for a corporation that no longer cared about anything but the bottom line: Especially when it comes to track maintenance and motive power upkeep. The wrong people stayed on in most cases and service standards suffered for it.

I was at Head Office myself for a while, when the company was a crown corporation and still concerned with building and not tearing down. Getting out was not a hard decision.

I'm not surprised the calls are out for help these days. They need it...and so do we. This country is in for a very rude awakening. Values have long since been replaced by dollar signs. Much of what passes for corporate activity is nothing more than effete snobs with no awareness of history and even less common sense pushing artificial money into ever-bigger green plastic bags. While they hitch more and more box cars to poorly maintained power units that should never have left the shop at Port Mann or Transcona.

When people are killed into the bargain the real price starts to mount up, even in the eyes of the compromised themselves. It's just a matter of time.

I am not defending CN

G West

But their motive power is not dangerously unsafe. They run a lot of junk that can break down from time to time but I am not aware of any accident that could be attributed to unsafe engines on either railroad. If you have a specific instance I would like to hear of it.

Crews get into battles with management from time to time over the condition of engines and if one is actually unsafe to use they don't have to use it. Part II of the Canada Labour Code sees to that.

As far as I know the jury is still out on the runaway accident near Lillooet. A ruling has not yet been posted by the TSB.

Way to go Snert

Garf is wrong again!

SO glad you asked Snert

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070209/wfive_derailments_070209/20070210?hub=WFive

Sorry cappy, no dice. Again. You're on a real losing streak man.

We know the story.

G West

As I said, the jury is still out on that one.

I am not going to discuss this particular incident as anything would be speculation.

Suffice to say read what I said before and get back to me when you've read the final report when it is issued.

You could be right.

Thanks snert

I hope I'm not right - but everything I've heard indicates I am. The idea that the bottom line is more important than peoples' lives is poisonous in any industry.

The meat of the story here is not about CN

The meat of the story here is not about CN, its about another union welching on its members. Most unions today are no longer there for the benefit of its members ,they function entirely for the life blood of the union its self. They exist only for themselves, to fill their own personal needs, Sorry ,but its true.
The old hardliners , voluntary organizers , are all gone .I know, I was one. There are very, few to take up the torch.

Capitalism said it best and hit the nail square on

More than a union problem

Do you understand what's gone on at CN since privatization and the major expansion into the States? After the company went private there was a wholesale buyout of virtually all of the existing experienced union operating and maintenance staff - many of whom were then brought back in to work as contractors on an ad hoc basis.

Nothing could have been worse for workplace morale and cohesion nor for the time honoured tradition in the car and motive power shops of on-the job training and mentoring.

Added to that have been cutbacks and shortcuts with maintenance and safety procedures that never would have been permitted by management prior to privatization.

I have a nephew who lost a foot to carelessness (not his) in Edmonton and another relative who was a senior charge hand in motive power until he negotiated a buyout and left in disgust.

This is not just a union problem by any means.

This is not just a union problem by any means.

Your right Garf, it's not all the unions fault, only 95% of it is.

CN No winner this time

I'm no leftie and I usually side with the right, but Cappy, you're wrong this time.

Granted, CN was a poorly managed public railway until it was privitized by Mulroney. It got a lot better in the 1990s and was regarded as one of the real success stories in the railroad industry.

Trouble is, this current management is running the company into the ground. The spate of derailments are a sign of a badly mismanaged company, not just bad luck. I have two friends who work at CN and they both say the same: safety budgets are whittled away, the equipment is run 30-50% longer than it used to be, and customer service has become a joke. Even the biggest customers -- the ones who thought BC Rail was terrible and expensive -- and it was -- don't think that anything has improved.

It's a sad state for what was once was one of railroading's best case histories of success.

Cappie.....I've never been a

Cappie.....I've never been a unionist, or a union supporter, but....

If unions are clinging to life, how long do you think humanity will permit unbridled exploitation and thievery by big business cartels and conspiracies ?

Like the Bilderbergers, Trilaterals, Davos, etc. etc. fixing prices, wars, who is permitted to live, daily growing living costs and sinking wages, etc?

Campbell will go down as a legend, for sure, but who would be happy to become a legend with his record of incompetence, lies, secret deals to sell BC, and coverups of what the owners of the sold properties will receive ? Like the CN or Accentura deals.

When a trustee sells properties against the onwers' wishes and then keeps the details
secret, it used to be a criminal offence many have gone to jail for. Let's hope this still applies!

Ed Deak.

Mr. Deak

*If unions are clinging to life, how long do you think humanity will permit unbridled exploitation and thievery by big business cartels and conspiracies ?

That's a very good question. I don't know. The thing is that this world is becoming so diverse and complicated that most new professions are highly specialized. There are fewer and fewer "un-skilled positions" available. Workers are no longer homogeneous - and specialization commands better pay.

So, it could be 100 years or more before we see a labour revolt. I just don't know that answer..

100 years?

Not at all, history is moving faster than ever. I would think the time between disillusionment and revolt has probably dropped to a space that can be measured in weeks.

Social unrest in Mexico seems to be based on the price of a tortilla. If people can eat, they'll stay off the streets. Probably the same in all places.

A rising tide was supposed to lift all boats. Globalization has failed that simple test and the minor gains made by some groups in some countries has been overwhelmed by population increase. The consequences will hit us as all these countries with half their population under 18 age a little.

As for unions, they're simply a way of labour demanding a seat at the table. That's too much for those that want labour to be seen and not heard. The short-sightedness of that philosophy is its own reward.

Wait for it.

The announcement that there is a Memorandum Of Settlement between CN and the striking UTU members to be voted on by March 26.

This is going to be interesting to watch.

I'd hoped this was one place

I'd hoped this was one place I could read a labour news story without seeing the term "union bosses". Oh well.

No details yet that I can post

But the news this morning is that the safety audit of CN has been released in response to a Freedom Of Information request. It sounds very much as though the sparse information in this CBC report from last fall are going to be borne out:

A locomotive with "extremely poor brakes" was operating on CN's rail line in northern B.C. this summer, just one of 21 safety violations listed in a Transport Canada report obtained by CBC News.

The safety violations were documented by officials during a routine inspection of the line.

Rod Nelson, spokesman for Transport Canada, said the numbers are higher than normal and include repeat violations.

"We did find some reoccurring violations, which we don't like," he said.

A letter in the report from Transport Canada's inspectors to CN stated: "The non-compliances noted from this inspection were the same things we find on each trip to the B.C. north. It is quite apparent … that these non-compliances are not being addressed."

However, CN spokesman Mark Hallman disagrees.
Continue Article

"I would think that's an exaggeration and Transport Canada has not provided us with any evidence to sustain that type of claim," Hallman said, calling the violations "relatively minor."

But Transport Canada says some of the violations are serious, including a locomotive in Fort St. James with brake and radio problems.

In that case, CN employees alerted federal inspectors who ordered the locomotive taken out of service immediately.

CN says it now has a plan in place to fix the problems and Transport Canada said inspectors will follow up to make sure that happens.

Sylvia LeBlanc, spokesperson for the United Transportation Union, which represents brakemen and conductors along the former B.C. Rail line, is pleased inspectors are monitoring safety.

"The operating employees that are out there, they're on these trains every day and they know what goes on every day," LeBlanc told CBC News. "It shouldn't be left to just the railways to monitor themselves."

LeBlanc adds that both rail employees and the company are responsible for improving safety.

CN says it has significantly improved its safety record this year. CN took over operation of B.C. Rail in 2004.

I'll post more details when I have them.

As to that last line from CN, I think there's another derailment in the news even as I type.

here are the details:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/railway/publications/inspection.htm

http://www.tc.gc.ca/railway/publications/audit.htm

First item is PART 1 and second item PART 2 of the audit report.

Must be quite a headache for the guys who sold out BC Rail.

Poisoned atmosphere.

I think it's a good indicator of the poisoned atmosphere that exist between CN and it's employees. A lot of items in the report are relatively easy to remedy if they are reported in a timely manner.

Those reports do have to be acted on

I should have included that in the previous post.