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Yellow Cabs Drawn into Rocky Mountaineer Labour Fight

Rail line reportedly asks hotels to 'avoid' taxi company, while union is found guilty of contempt.

Tom Sandborn 10 May 2012TheTyee.ca

Tom Sandborn covers labour and health policy beats for The Tyee. He welcomes your feedback and story tips here.

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City cab stand signs posted outside Rocky Mountaineer station went missing last week. Photo by Dave Van Hove.

A controversial labour dispute at the Rocky Mountaineer luxury rail line erupted into further discord last week, with company management allegedly taking down signs for a recently posted City of Vancouver cab stand just outside the Teamster picket line.

Over 100 on-board attendants were locked out by the company last June. Since then, a picket line has been maintained whenever passengers are loading or unloading outside the company's station at 1755 Cottrell in Vancouver's False Creek Flats.

The week also saw the Rocky Mountaineer reportedly urging hotels to boycott Yellow Cab taxis when arranging trips for guests to the company's station, and non-union company employees pressuring cab drivers to cross the picket line.

In addition, the Teamster local involved in the dispute was found guilty on May 2 of contempt of court for earlier incidents on the line.

The ongoing dispute has featured the rail line hiring non-union replacement workers -- "scabs" in union parlance -- on Craigslist to replace locked out Teamster attendants, as well as critical public discussion of the company's labour policies and their impact on Vancouver's tourist industry.

'We are trying to stay neutral': Bauer

Along with dismantling the city's cab stand sign, Rocky Mountaineer hired security guard traffic directors as its new season opened in late April to encourage arriving cabs to cross the picket line and take passengers directly to the door of the station.

"My understanding is that the Vancouver Taxi Association approached the city last week and asked us to designate a cab stand just outside the picket line at the Rocky Mountaineer, which we did," Vancouver city councilor Geoff Meggs told The Tyee on May 7. "When I went by the site on Friday morning, the signs designating the cab zone had been removed. I heard that Rocky Mountaineer staff had taken them down, suspecting they had been erected by union pickets. City Engineering has since gone back and replaced the signs."

Several locked out Teamster picketers and Local 31 vice president Rod Blackburn confirmed what Meggs told The Tyee -- that signs originally put up by city workers to designate a cab drop off zone had been removed by Rocky Mountaineer staff overnight. No one at the Rocky Mountaineer office responded to repeated requests for comment on the fate of the missing signs.

Carolyn Bauer, general manager at Yellow Cab's Vancouver operations and spokeswoman for the Vancouver Taxi Association, confirmed that she had asked the city to provide a designated taxi unloading area just outside the Mountaineer picket line, but strongly denied claims made by the rail line that her firm had been siding with the locked out Teamsters by directing drivers to refuse to cross the picket line.

"This is an awful dispute, and our drivers are in a terrible position," Bauer said in a May 7 phone interview. "All our drivers are independent, and some are willing to cross the picket line and others aren't. We are trying to stay neutral. We feel that we need to offer an alternative to customers when drivers decide not to cross the line. We asked the city to set up an unloading area outside the picket line, and I offered to come down personally and help passengers carry their luggage to the train. Rocky Mountaineer managers weren't open to that."

Bauer said some Yellow Cab drivers told her their Rocky Mountaineer-bound passengers had been given no notice they would have to cross a picket line in order to get on the train. Some, she said, were very upset.

"This is not good for business," Bauer said. "In this economy, Vancouver can't afford to lose any customers."

Hotels asked to 'avoid' Yellow Cabs: letter

Phoning from the picket line on May 8, locked out Teamster on-board attendant Kim Marshall said she observed security guards shout and strike the roofs of cabs as part of their efforts to pressure drivers to cross the picket line

Bauer also described Rocky Mountaineer security guards/traffic marshals "muscling" drivers as they approached the picket, pressuring them to cross on the morning of May 4.

Bauer provided The Tyee with a copy of a letter she said had gone to some downtown hotels late in April from the Rocky Mountaineer. Signed by Craig O'Beirne, the rail line's manager of West Coast Destinations, the letter reads in part:

"As you may be aware, we have been experiencing a labor dispute over the course of the last few months. During this time a picket line has been set up at our station and while most taxi companies are obeying the law and driving our guests to their proper destination, Yellow Cabs has decided to align with the picketers and will not drop off our guests at the station and instead drop them off in the middle of the picket line. This causes great frustration for the guests and puts them in the middle of a situation that they should not have to endure after saving and looking forward to their vacation for a long time.

"With this in mind, going forward we ask that all our partners avoid using Yellow Cabs for Rocky Mountaineer Guests. If any guests staying at your property request a taxi, please ensure they are not placed in a Yellow Cab as they will not complete the journey to the guests requested destination. (All other Taxi companies are fine and Black Top has been especially helpful)."

Yellow Cab's Bauer said the request that hotels boycott her company did not seem to be having any serious impact, with her drivers being dispatched regularly to hotels for trips to the rail line.

Union contempt rulings

Despite repeated Tyee requests, neither the Rocky Mountaineer's Beirne or any other railway management staff, nor Vince Chow at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (one of the hotel decision-makers who reportedly received the letter), made themselves available to comment on the question of the letter to hotels.

However, Nancy Dery, a media spokeswoman for Rocky Mountaineer, did provide an emailed comment on a recent court case before the B.C. Supreme Court. In a ruling dated May 2, 2012, Justice Affleck found that Teamster Local 31 was guilty of two counts of contempt of court in relation to picket line activity judged to be in contempt of a June 30 court order, and not guilty of another charge related to a different order.

The judge said that: "I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that in the period from July 11 through July 22, 2011, the Union encouraged its members at the least to impede, hinder and delay persons in vehicles at or near the locations listed in the order."

The ruling imposed a fine of $25,000 against the union, to be paid out as a donation to the Vancouver Food Bank. Lawyers for the rail line had reportedly asked the justice to impose a fine of $176,000.

On behalf of Rocky Mountaineer, Dery wrote:

"Our primary focus is to provide our guests with exceptional service and life-changing experiences both on and off our trains. We are satisfied and respect the court's recent penalty ruling based on the union being held in contempt of court twice. We are respectful of the union’s right to picket peacefully and are hopeful that this recent ruling will deter picketers from continuing to perform illegal acts on the line."  [Tyee]

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