Vancouver
and Calgary Injunction attempts
May
18th, 2007
Brothers and Sisters,
Last night we found out that CPRail had made an application for
injunction to limit our picketing at the Vancouver Intermodal
Facility in Pitt Meadows, BC. As you know, no trucks have been
moving in or out of there since the strike began (sorry, one truck
went in and out). They claim that this has had a significant effect
on their business and has affected them.
They made outrageous accusations which were totally untrue about
alleged intimidation, threats etc.
Today the matter was heard in court and they were denied the injunction.
Picketting will go on as usual, with full respect for the law
and fully within our legal rights. There have not been any threats
or any intimidation, just decent people and union brothers honouring
our picket line out of respect for our struggle.
It is good to see lies go unrewarded.
Stay safe, stay strong, stay united
Bill Brehl
President
TCRC MWED
Brother Brehl:
Today (Friday), at 12:48, I was served with an application for
an injunction to limit the amount of time, two minutes, that
we are able to picket in front of vehicles entering and leaving
the Calgary Intermodal facility. We are currently allowed to
hold them for 5 minutes as negotiated with the Calgary City
Police, the CPR Police, the terminal manager and the local TCRC
representatives, Dennis Arter and myself.
This
application required that we appear before 1400, one hour and
12 minutes from receipt, In the Court of Queens bench to defend
our position. I called Brother Brehl for instructions on how
to handle this. He told me to call Dave Brown, our lawyer, and
to start driving to the Teamsters 362 office so they could check
out the documents for me. Upon my arrival at 1410, Rick Eickel
and Roy Finlay (by phone) reviewed the papers. At about 1430
Dave Brown called and said that we got an extension until 1500
and that I would have to get moving to meet our local lawyer
at the courts. I arrived at 1455 and waited for Murray McGown,
our lawyer, who was stuck in traffic and arrived finally at
about 1510. We had a very brief conversation and then entered
the courtroom. After the court was called to session, it took
Mr. McGown all of about 30 seconds to take control and defend
our legal right to picket peacefully. He put down the company's
argument very firmly. The judge took a short recess to review
everything that was presented. Upon her return, she stated that
the company lawyers had failed to prove their case at this time
and that she would allow the TCRC-MWED to continue picketing
the Calgary Intermodal facility as they had been doing, until
Wednesday May 23, when we are to return and defend our right
again. She also made a brief comment about staying out of any
kind of confrontations at the picket line. On the way out of
the courtroom, I commented to Mr. McGown that Friday afternoons
are always a great time to beat up on bad guys.
Brothers, when we started this on Wednesday, there was a 9 hour
turnaround time for what usually takes about a 1/2 hour. It
has settled out to about a 4 hour delay now.
This
is a HUGE statement made by the courts today in our favor. It
could be reversed on Wednesday but it could also continue to
stand. For now we will continue status quo!!!
Keep up the good fight
Keep it clean
Stay Positive!
Stand Strong!!
Stand United!!!
Ernie Bateman
161 Local Chairman
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