- Registrado
- 13 de Dic, 2021
"Fack's sakes Ricky, the train's on fire now!"
And as of August 22nd, 2024 at 0001 local time, the two major freight companies in Canada - CN and CPKC - locked out its running trades employees, after eleven months of contract negotiation, binding arbitration, and the government decision that a work stoppage would not be detrimental to the lifeblood of the nation.
What caused the stoppage?
In September of 2023, Teamsters Rail Conference Canada(TCRC for short) sat down with Canadian National Railways and Canadian Pacific/Kansas City Rail to discuss a new collective agreement - The contract that all workers are bound to, ensuring fair play by both union and company - for CN's running trades(conductors, engineers, and brakemen), CPKC's Rail Traffic Controllers, and CPKC's running trades individually. Both CN and CPKC proposed drastic new changes to the pay structure used by the running trades, citing its "Archaic" method of paying its employees. The new method would be an hourly rate instead of a by-the-mile pay rate, and came with the added bonus of scrapping the majority of the rights given to workers via previous iterations of the collective agreements, such as the ability to book unfit for work. Additionally, this would mean that all workers would be on call at any time in a twelve-hour period for a twelve-hour shift - a major fatigue risk. In essence, imagine you could be called for work between 8 AM to 8 PM. So, you stay awake all afternoon because you think you're going to get called to work any minute, only for them to call you around 7 PM just before you're going to hit the sack for a twelve-hour shift you can't book unfit for. If this sounds bad, that's because it is: A certain disaster in Alberta was believed to have been caused by work fatigue, and reporting fatigued during your shift carries significant concerns.
In April of this year, a strike vote commenced to see the interest from all three union groups. Of the three, 97.6% of CN employees voted in favor of the strike(with 93.3% turnout), CPKC's RTCs voting 95.3% in favor(with 96.6% turnout), and CPKC's running trades voting 99% in favor of a strike(with a 91.7% turnout), causing mounting tensions to go tighter than a tuned piano wire.
How bad is it?
While I can't speak for every person in every province, to put it simply: You're fucked. Especially if you live in Alberta or Saskatchewan, because we haven't figured out how to get cargo ships into the prairies yet. Especially so since it's currently harvest season, meaning that a lot of grain is simply not moving.
Realistically, I'm not comfortable saying how long this strike will go for, as much of it hinges on how quickly the Canadian government is willing to step in to force the companies back to work. Typically, most stoppages last around 3 days at rail companies, but with a new labor minister in office, it's difficult to predict. It's worth mentioning that a number of laid off employees at CPKC have received their return-to-work letters and are set to return on the 25th of August, but again, it's difficult to discern.
If you're uncertain how this affects you:
Ontario, southern Quebec: You might feel a bit of strain, but coastal trade will hopefully keep up the big supply.
Alberta, Saskatchewan, most of Manitoba: You're pretty badly fucked.
Territories, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick: You've been fucked since the beginning.
British Columbia: If the strike lasts too long, you'll run out of drinking water. Chlorine, the stuff that purifies your drinking water, is only transported by rail.
PEI: You might not even notice.
'MURICANS HELL YEAH BROTHER USA USA USA: If you work with dangerous or hazardous materials in the northern states, you likely have already felt the effects of this as most key trains and special dangerous commodities stopped shipping some time last week to prevent them from stopping somewhere unwanted - Unlike the four rail companies that rule the States with an iron fist, Canada learned something from their last major rail disaster at Lac-Mégantic.
I'll attempt to post updates when I can, but it'll be word-of-mouth-y for a while. If you're a fellow leaf, don't take it personally - This is to put a squeeze on the companies first and foremost.
Additionally, if you are a CP or CN union member on strike and wish to share some corporate fuckery that you or your colleagues have endured, please DM me. I have a fairly solid idea of what CP's running trades have gone through from a reputable source, but my information on the CN collective agreement and the ~80 RTCs that work in Calgary is limited at best.
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