March 31, 2006
On
March 29th, Director Jim Daniel and I attended a meeting
in Kamloops, BC concerning the derailment which occurrred
on the track adjacent to the Pacifc #2 Steel Crew's outfit
cars a few weeks ago.
One
night earlier this month, while 64 people lay sleeping
in the Pac 2 sleeper cars, a CN eastbound (running on CP
track) dragged a derailed car past them, chewing up ties
and the devil's strip. One of our member's, who looked
out to see what was happening, said that it went by so close
that he had to pull his head back, to avoid being hit.
Some
of those who had been awakened and were so shook up they
were unable to get back to sleep, issued their concerns
about going to work unrested the next morning. They
were told that they could "...do what they wanted.." but
that if they did not go to work they would not get paid. In
spite of this threat, five decided that it would be
unsafe for them to work and went home. The company
lived up to its promise and refused to pay them at first, but
after a lot of arguing on our part and a face to face
meeting with Anthony Manconi, Manager of TP&E, he finally
relented and allowed them to be paid. It was at this "face
to face" that yesterday's meeting was suggested for discussions
concerning the incident ith members of Pac 2's Workplace
Health and safety Committee and "to improve communications".
After
the meeting began, TPS Sam Browne spoke on his recollections
of that night and his concerns about parking the outfits
next to main line track. Anyone from the TP&E in
the Pacific Region knows Sam and knows his committment to
the safety and well being of the employees in his charge. It
was obvious to everyone on our side of the table that he
was still visibly shaken by this near tragedy. I only wish
that I could be sure his superiors had the same committment
to safety and took this incident as seriously as he did.
Jason
Puyman, a TCRC MWED member of the Pac#2 WH&S
committee spoke next. He talked about his own feelings
on the matter and about the feelings expressed by his fellow
members, the next morning and over the following weeks. Jason
took it upon himself to put together a questionaire encompassing
many of the concerns of the Pac2 members, but centering around
parking the outfits next to "live" track. The response
was overwhelming opposition to having their lives put at
risk in such a manner. Jason cares, not only becasue
his own life is at risk on these outfits, but so are the
lives of his friends.
A common
observation was that the company demands we
stop working when a train is approaching on an adjacent track
and, when practicable, exit our machines and remove
ourselves to a safe place at least 20 feet away... under
threat of discipline if we don't comply. However,
they force us to go to sleep less than ten feet from
trains rattling by all night long. And consider the
amount of trains which are going by while the crew is sleeping. After
all, not many trains are running while the crew is awake,
because the crew is out working with a track block. Obviously,
the majority of daily trains are roaring by while the crew
is trying to sleep. After all, operations has a mandate
to be.."on time, all the time."
Jim
Daniel spoke about a derailment recently at Choate that
wiped out a BTMF truck on a siding. Luckily, the crew was
not in at the time. He also talked about a derailmet
a few years ago, that not only destroyed a crane on the adjacent
track, but also pounded it into other cars in the backtrack
and knocked them off as well.
I passed
around a number of 8 X 10 photos taken at various derailments,
to accentuate the carnage and destruction that can occur
even at low speeds. We looked at the
fireball explosion outside of Belleville, the chlorine spill
at Mississauga, tanker cars piled up like lincoln logs on
the Mountain sub, a railway station wiped out in North Carolina,
two dozen CN cars strewn about the Prairies, and many more. We
even looked at a set of boarding cars demolished beneath
derailed container cars in Virginia. Thank God
this accicent happened during 'days off' when no one
was around, otherwise it could have been a monumental
tragedy.
All
of us who work the track know the dangers that we inherently
face every single day. Over the years we
tend to be complacent about them. After all, in our
minds they become just a fact of life. We put
them at the back of our thoughts, because to dwell on them
would drive us crazy. So we go out to work and we risk
our lives and we do our work.
I do
believe however, that we are sometimes granted a 'wake
up call'. We get a chance to see what could have
happened, and we get a chance to correct it. We get
a chance to prevent it from happening in the future. And
we get a chance to sit down and figure out ways
to make our lives safer, instead of meeting to bury our Brothers.
This
was one of those chances. And even though,
as one manager put it, " I don't have to look at these pictures,
I've seen them before", I don't believe they have truly seen
what a tragedy can do. They may have seen the
cars on the ground, but they haven't truly seen the sorrow
and the misery that can result.
But
whether the company will put our safety above excess profits
or not... we have to. We have to learn from
their mistakes.We have to learn from the lessons that are
shown us. We have to, on occasion, re visit these disasters
and remind ourselves what rests on our committment to safety. A
quote that I believe applies here is that those that
do not learn from history are destined to repeat it.
We
are adamant that the company must stop putting our members
at such a grave risk by parking their outfits beside "live
track" simply as a matter of convenience. Or so they
can save a few minutes travel time. Our lives
should never be risked for such petty reasons. They
are put at risk enough already in our everyday duties. We
must try to cut the risks down everywhere that we can. Though
Mr. Manconi was adamant that he was not willing to address
this issue nationally, we did manage to get some small concessions
from him.
After years of fighting with the company over the outfits
being parked next to the main at Haig and after years of
broken promises and committments concerning the storage track
being extended and the fixing the problem at that location,
we now have a verbal promise from Mr. Manconi
that the outfits will no longer be parked there. He
has agreed to have them parked safely in the back track at
Ruby Creek a few miles away, from now on. We must continue
to remind him and his successors of this committment.
Even
though we managed to get the above committment form the
company, it was soon revealed that they were plannig to
move Pac2, eastward from Spences Bridge where they are
safely parked now. And instead of moving them
to Mission flats or to Chase (both locations have storage
tracks well clear of the mainline), they are planning to
park them at Ducks right beside the main line again!! Pac#2
is the same crew that is still reeling from their near miss
in Haig. For your information, Mission Flats
and Chase are on either side of Ducks and are comparatively
close.
Needless
to say, this is totally unacceptable. As
hard as it is to believe, the same company managers that
are asking you if you are committed to safety are the ones
making this callous and thoughtless decision. We have
demanded a level 2 risk assessment to be performed, by the
Pacific # 2 WH&S committee, prior to the outfits
being moved there. Mr. Manconi conceded that it would
be done within the next two weeks and he will contact us
with the date in a timely fashion.
Brothers
and Sisters, there are many alternatives to putting people
at risk this way. And we must unite and demand
that they are taken. If the company will not care about
its employees enough to supply safe accomodations, then I
believe that due dilligence demands that we do it ourselves.
I heard the excuse that they have been doing it this way
for years and another manager called it "one of the facts
of life on the railroad". Well, we should not and
will not accept that. The company knows how we feel. They
know how the men and women on the boarding cars feel, supervisors
and unionized people as well. And they now have the
chance to correct the problem. If they fail to do so,
then we must take it upon ourselves to do everything allowable
under law, to have it corrected.
This
matter, in my opinion, clearly shows that your
safety is much too important to leave in the hands of management.
The
other issue that was discussed at this meeting concerned
the meals provided on the baording cars. Or more
significantly, the lack of good quality nutritious food being
made available to our membership who are staying on boarding
cars. There has been a problem with the catering for
quite some time and we are through waiting for the company
to correct the problem. The solution is simple. Supply
the boarding car occupants with three nutritious meals per
day with a reasonable variety offered. Supply all CP
employees on the boarding cars with these meals. No
more stale bread, rotten fruit, small portions, etc.. No
more running out of food before everyone is fed. No
more single entree items without any consideration for people's
dietary necessities.
These
are simple creature comforts and they are not only common
sense, they are mandated by contract and by law. We
do not want anymore excuses, we want proper meals. As
was stated clearly to Mr. Manconi when he tried to lay all
of the blame on the caterers, we do not care about his problems
with the caterers. Our contract is not with them, it
is with CPRail. CPRail hired the caterers, not us. If
CPRail wants to 'low ball' a contract so they can pocket
more profits, they should deal with the consequences, not
us. Though the company has been well aware of the problem
for a long time, they have not had it corrected. They
have given excuses instead of solutions.
At
this latest meeting, after much arguing, they did commit
that it will not continue. But we have heard this committment
previously. If they really gave a damn about their
employees, then the first bad meal would
have been the last bad meal. This
was not the case. In fact, one manager, thought it
wise to make jokes about the issue. It seems that up
to this point they have not made any great effort to insure
that their employees were properly fed.
We
are not animals... We are hard working men and women who
deserve and demand proper food, as well as respect. We
are not CPRail's property, we are their employees. There
is a huge difference.
Therefore,
we are preparing to take direct legal action if this problem
persists. The company admits that it
is aware of the problem. They know how to correct it and
have committed to do so. If they continue to allow
it to go on, they must accept the consequences. This
goes far beyond a simple Collective Agreement issue, possible
well beyond Labour Code violations and may very well
have to be resolved in formal litigation. As stated
earlier, our attorneys are presently preparing
for that possibility.
One other thing is for certain, a company's attitude towards
its employees and their rights under the code and collective
agreement always has an effect on the manner
in which formal negotiations are resolved.
Fraternally,
Bill Brehl
President
TCRC MWED
