Canadian rail workers may finally go on strike

Last month, I wrote an article on the pending strike of Canadian rail workers that never seems to arrive.

Back in May, the Teamsters announced that they held a strike authorization vote. During that vote, 93.3% of locomotive engineers and yard workers employed by CN turned out to vote and 97.6% voted in favour of striking. CPKC conductors, locomotive engineers and yard workers voted 99% to vote, with a 91.7% turnout. Finally, 95.3% rail traffic controllers at CPKC showed up and 96.6% voted in in favour of striking.

Clearly, it was a strong mandate to strike.

However, 3 days before the workers could strike, the federal government interfered with their constitutionally guaranteed right to strike.

Seamus O’Regan, the so-called labour minister, bowed under pressure from the owning class to interfere in the strike, calling for the Canadian Industrial Relations Board to review whether such a strike would “jeopardize Canadians’ health and safety”.

This move paused the work stoppage until the CIRB made a decision. Depending on how long the CIRB took, the strike authorization could’ve actually expired before the workers had a chance to actually strike.

For rail workers, like other federally regulated industries, strike authorization votes are good for only 60 days, which means this vote would have expired at the beginning of July.

Worried about the potential expiration, the Teamsters held another strike authorization vote toward the end of June. According to a media release the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference published on their website, the workers once again voted in favour of striking.

Turnout for the strike vote was 89.5% overall, and 98.6% authorized striking. Here’s how it breaks down by worker group:

Workers	Employer	Turnout	In favour
Conductors, locomotive engineers, yard workers	CN	90.1%	98.4%
Conductors, locomotive engineers, yard workers	CPKC	88.6%	99.2%
Rail traffic controllers	CPKC	88.5%	95.7%

This was another solid mandate from the workers. It is clear that the workers—not just the union leadership—are willing to strike to get a fairer contract.

And their hunch was right. The CIRB decision did end up going past the expiration date of the first strike vote. In fact, it wasn’t until last week that they finally issued a decision.

According to a media release published last week, the Teamsters have long maintained that there is no need for essential services in the event of a work stoppage in the rail industry. The CIRB agrees with this position, paving the way for a strike, something the members strongly supported twice.

Unfortunately, this decision triggered a so-called cooling off period of 13 days, during which time, the workers can’t go on strike and the employers can’t lock out the workers.

This interferes with the workers’ constitutionally-protected freedom to strike. It also weakens the strongest leverage the workers have over the employers, reducing the likelihood the companies will make concessions in bargaining, assuming any bargaining actually takes place during that period.

The workers claim that “CPKC wants to gut the collective agreement of all safety-critical fatigue provisions”, which will force workers ‘to stay awake even longer, increasing the risk of derailments and other accidents”. They also claim CPKC has “failed to address the understaffing of rail traffic controllers”.

CN is less focused around fatigue articles in its contract with the workers, but their still want to jeopardize worker safety, according to workers. They’re trying “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”. Plus, they also want to make workers west of Ontario work longer hours.

This isn’t even about money. It’s about safe working conditions.

The cooling-off period will expire next Wednesday (22 August), assuming the parties can’t come to a reasonable contract. And given how two strike mandates from the workers hasn’t seemed to motivate either CPKC or CN, I’m not holding my breath that they intend to make concessions now.

Ironically, had the Liberals not interfered in these negotiations, the strike might have ended by now and a contract might have already been settled. Instead, the strike is set to begin just as grain harvesting season gets underway.