For the first time in Canada’s history, both its major rail companies have stopped operating after employers shut out workers.
The teamsters have been fighting for safety provisions regarding fatigue and for CN workers to be able to stay with their families. According to the union’s website, CPKC wants to gut fatigue provisions which would mean crews have to stay awake longer, increasing the risk of derailments and other accidents.
CN is also targeting fatigue provisions. As well, it wants to implement a forced relocation scheme, which would see workers ordered to move across the country for months at a time to fill labour shortages.
The Transportation Safety Board has put fatigue on its watch list since 2016. Crews often work long and irregular schedules which can make it difficult to get restorative sleep, according to the safety board’s website. The board wrote it is concerned about how fatigue can affect the performance of crews and therefore the safety of operations.
In case you were wondering why CN and CPKC are fighting so hard against this… It amounts to a rounding error on their balance sheet at the end of the year. They’ve spent nearly $10 BILLION on stock buybacks since the start of the pandemic.
They could double the number of unionized workers, and it would make practically no difference to their bottom line. They could triple the union’s demands, and again, the real-world cost in dollars in negligible, but the real-world improvement in safety and standard of living for the workers would be incredible.
But they won’t do it without being forced, because… greed.
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In case you were wondering why CN and CPKC are fighting so hard against this… It amounts to a rounding error on their balance sheet at the end of the year. They’ve spent nearly $10 BILLION on stock buybacks since the start of the pandemic.
They could double the number of unionized workers, and it would make practically no difference to their bottom line. They could triple the union’s demands, and again, the real-world cost in dollars in negligible, but the real-world improvement in safety and standard of living for the workers would be incredible.
But they won’t do it without being forced, because… greed.