Good morning. Apologies for sending this out later than usual; we had some technical woes. Canada’s railways and their union are on separate tracks when it comes to safety rules – more on that below, along with new caps on temporary foreign workers and a massive tax on Chinese-made EVs. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Trudeau says he plans to lead the Liberals into the next federal election – and dismisses comparisons to Biden
- Israeli forces battle Hamas fighters in Gaza as space for displaced families narrows
- After weeks of peace talks, there’s no end in sight for the devastating wars in Sudan and Congo
Members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference during the lockout.Peter Power/The Canadian Press
Railways
Not safe for work
It took just under 17 hours for the federal labour board to order nearly 10,000 rail workers back on the job, but plenty of damage had already been done. It’s hard to calculate the full cost of the disruption, since Canada’s two major railways – Canadian National Rail (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) – have never had a simultaneous work stoppage before. But more than $1-billion of goods are moved by rail in Canada every single day, and with those goods piling up in containers at ports, waiting to be loaded onto trains, it’ll likely take weeks for the supply chain to recover. That’s particularly bad news for meat and bananas – the railways stopped accepting orders for perishable items in the days leading up to the lockout.
Labour Minister Steve MacKinnon said he was using his power to skirt the collective-bargaining process and send the dispute to final arbitration, which starts this Thursday. At that hearing, the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) will impose the terms of the collective agreement on both the railways and the Teamsters union representing workers. And if they don’t like those terms? Too bad – the arbitration is binding.
But amid all the numbers and acronyms and opinion pieces getting tossed around, it can be easy to lose sight of the major issue that’s stalled contract talks for months: worker safety. The union says the railways are trying to overcome a labour shortage by making employees work longer days, farther from home. The companies insist their offers ensure safety, higher wages and scheduling changes so workers can spend more time with their families.
This morning on The Decibel, The Globe’s Menaka Raman-Wilms spoke about the conditions for Canada’s rail workers with Bruce Curran, an associate law professor at the University of Manitoba. Here’s some of what he said on the podcast.
On the roots of the issue:
“This all goes back to an individual named Hunter Harrison, who became the executive of CN [in 2003]. He implemented something known as precision scheduled railroading – a lean system of management where railways work with as few crew as possible to drive inefficiencies out of the system. This has led to massive layoffs across the railways, and has led to the workers who remain working longer hours and beyond the point of good decision-making, where fatigue may be an issue.”
Lac-Mégantic, Que., site of one of Canada's worst rail disasters.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
On the causes of that fatigue:
“Workers believe – with justification, based on my research – that they’re being pushed beyond the limits of reasonable human endurance. Workers are required with very short notice to be away from home for many days at a time, and to work long hours with few breaks in between. Often, the railways count a rest period as the amount of time between when [a shift] ends and when it starts next. But that doesn’t factor in the individual’s travel time to the railway, which can be substantial because these are remote areas. So this can lead to people working shifts of 17 hours or, in some cases, 24 hours at a time.”
On the role of fatigue in rail accidents:
“Since 1990, there have been more than 30 rail disasters in Canada. In virtually all of them, investigations have pointed to fatigue as a major contributing factor. In July, 2013, a railway car carrying 72 tankers of volatile shale oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic. It killed 47 people, spilled a record 6 million litres of oil and incinerated the town centre. Substantial evidence points to fatigue being a major factor. The engineer who was primarily responsible – because he allegedly improperly applied the brake – had been awake for more than 17 hours. And that has a severe impact on cognitive functioning and decision-making.”
On the rules that exist:
“In 2020, the federal government set up rules for how long employees can work any given shift [maximum 12 hours] and what rest periods they should have [10 to 12 hours]. That’s a step in the right direction, but these rules don’t apply to all employees in safety-sensitive positions. And oftentimes, the rules are not really respected to the letter, because everybody – both management and workers – have pressure to do more with less.”
On whether arbitration will solve matters:
“Arbitrators don’t really have any magic here. They tend to look at the financial provisions in comparable collective agreements for workers in similar industries, and try to replicate those. But there aren’t effective comparables to deal with the major and serious issues, particularly with respect to safety on the rails, where the parties are very, very far apart.”
The Decibel’s interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The Shot
Ottawa’s clampdown on low-cost foreign labour
Justin Trudeau in Halifax.Kelly Clark/The Canadian Press
Midway through his cabinet retreat in Halifax, Justin Trudeau announced three big changes to Canada’s low-wage temporary foreign worker program, in a bid to wrestle down population growth that’s exploded since 2022. Read more here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Cribbing from Joe Biden’s tariff playbook, Justin Trudeau pledged to impose a 106.1-per-cent surtax on all Chinese-made EVs starting in October. That’s up from 6.1 per cent right now.
Abroad: It doesn’t look like France’s political crisis will wrap up anytime soon, after President Emmanuel Macron ruled out naming a prime minister from the left-wing coalition that surged in last month’s snap election.
Tapping out: Calgary’s latest round of water rationing has kicked in, as crews start up a new round of repairs on the city’s problematic pipe.
Tuning in: Are you concerned that your attention span has withered away into nothingness? Blame the internet’s infinite abundance – but then check out these handy tips to fight distractions and stay focused.