Although a locomotive was seen rolling north along the CPKC Sudbury Yard off of Lorne Street on Thursday, locomotive engineer John Blyth clarified that it was being operated by a manager.
“Locally, it’s always been management who ran trains when we were on strike or locked out,” he said, clarifying that he hasn’t caught wind of anyone busing in scab workers.
Effective first thing this morning, a national rail shutdown began, with Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. locking out 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers.
This affects approximately 25 workers at CPKC based in Sudbury and more than 160 workers at the CN yards in Capreol.
Whereas Blyth spoke to Sudbury.com, workers locked out in Capreol declined comment, deferring to a Teamsters Canada Rail spokesperson based in Quebec who did not pick up the phone.
Those in Capreol did, however, clarify how many people were affected directly by that day’s lockout and that they serve a wide swath of the province, stretching approximately 300 miles south and 300 miles west.
Although the rail shutdown is about a lot of things, including wages and benefits, Blyth said the key thing is work/life balance.
Mandated nights in bed were “designed to be at your house, but CP is now forcing employees to do it at their away-from-home terminals,” he said.
By forcing people away from their homes for longer periods of time, he said they’re not using the rest rules the way they were designed to be used.
There are other nuances behind the shutdown and the handling of rest rules, but he said it all comes down to creating a system that better prioritizes work/life balance.
The shutdown is a continuation of the 2022 work stoppage, which ended in binding arbitration that extended the existing contract to the end of 2023.
No strike or lockout took place until now because rail work was labeled an essential service. That was, until earlier this month, when the Canada Industrial Relations Board determined rail work is not an essential service.
The strike/lockout threat loomed for weeks, and a lockout took effect first thing Thursday.
As with any strike/lockout, Blyth said the goal is to resolve things as quickly as possible, as a lot of affected workers have families and need to get back to work to help support them.
“Throughout this process, CN and CPKC have shown themselves willing to compromise rail safety and tear families apart to earn an extra buck,” Teamsters Canada Rail Conference president Paul Boucher said in a media release.
“The railroads don’t care about farmers, small businesses, supply chains, or their own employees. Their sole focus is boosting their bottom line, even if it means jeopardizing the entire economy.”
Multiple offers were presented in the past several days, none of which seriously considered by the company, according to the union’s media release.
“Neither CN nor CPKC has relented on their push to weaken protections around rest periods and scheduling, increasing the risk of fatigue-related safety issues,” according to the media release. “CN also continues to demand a forced relocation scheme, which could see workers ordered to move across the country, tearing families apart in the process.”
In their media release, CN noted that the lockout was initiated after the union “did not respond to another offer by CN in a final attempt to avoid a labour disruption.”
“This offer improved wages and would have seen employees work less days in a month by aligning hours of service in the collective agreement with federally mandated rest provisions,” according to the media release.
“The offer also proposed a pilot project for hourly rates and scheduled shifts on a portion of the network as CN continues to believe this is a better and more predictable framework for our employees.”
Their offer in April included $75/hr wage for locomotive engineers and $65/hr for conductors, and their simplified offer in May had predictable days off, among other things, according to CN.
In the CPKC media release, it’s noted that binding arbitration is needed.
“We fully understand and appreciate what this work stoppage means for Canadians and our economy,” according to the media release.
“CPKC is acting to protect Canada’s supply chains, and all stakeholders, from further uncertainty and the more widespread disruption that would be created should this dispute drag out further resulting in a potential work stoppage occurring during the fall peak shipping period. Delaying resolution to this labour dispute will only make things worse.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
