Despite the Canadian government’s undemocratic betrayal of workers’ rights in support of the greedy corporations CN Rail and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Rail (CPKC), Teamsters Union continues to be steadfast in their fight for safe and decent work.
Contrary to some of the mainstream media’s portrayal of the rail workers’ situation, the workers have not been on strike. Rather, they were forced into a lockout by a despicable decision on behalf of Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon and the bosses of CN Rail and CPKC. Then, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) imposed binding arbitration upon the workers to force them back to work and ignore their crucial demands for health and safety on the job.
Canadian corporate and government greed
“This decision by the CIRB sets a dangerous precedent. It signals to Corporate Canada that large companies need only stop their operations for a few hours, inflict short-term economic pain, and the federal government will step in to break a union. The rights of Canadian workers have been significantly diminished today,” said Paul Boucher, President of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.
“The Liberal Trudeau government has chosen to side against middle- and working-class Canadians, abandoning their supposed progressive values at the first sign of short-term supply chain disruptions. The Teamsters have fought to protect rail safety in Canada, improve working conditions, and prevent CN from forcing workers to relocate thousands of kilometers away from their families—and we will continue to do so,” added Boucher. The Teamsters union has confirmed they will be fighting the CIRB binding arbitration decision in court.
Teamsters are fighting for all of us
After months of negotiations in bad faith, where on many occasions CN Rail and CPKC bosses have refused to even show up at the table, Teamsters workers are fed up with demanding what are basic concerns of health and safety—namely, needing longer periods of rest between shifts. One worker remarked how frustrated he is that people think this is simply a fight for more money, when in fact, all the workers on the picket line’s primary concern is that of rest periods.
“We do not want another Lac-Mégantic,” one of the workers explained. “It blew up most of an entire town!” Lac-Mégantic was a rail accident due to unsafe work, very similar to the lack of adequate rest times the CN Rail and CPKC workers are currently fighting against.
“We are carrying heavy items, sometimes even explosives,” one of the Teamsters union members remarked. “We need to be able to sleep. It is not just our safety that they are neglecting by not giving us our demands, but the safety of everyone who is by those train tracks.”
The issues these rail workers are fighting for concern every person, coast-to-coast, as not only are these goods and services that keep our society running, but a win for more decent work by Teamsters would mean a ripple effect for all other workers in the country. After all, seeing the many successes of unions over the past years is what has inspired many of the workers on these picket lines. As one worker put it, “The teachers have won stuff, the postal workers, the longshoremen… It’s our turn!”
Rail workers are not giving up
CN Rail workers have courageously decided to defy the autocratic decision made by the Canadian government and the rail bosses. “They have shown they don’t care about the workers, they only care about the money. They’re not treating us like humans who need sleep, rest, to do our chores, and to have a life. So we’re fighting back.”
For the most recent updates, go to teamsters.ca.
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