Thread by @sunnshiiny

This is absurd! Alberta conservative farmers, supportive of UCP, are lobbying the federal government to strip rail worker’s unions from the ability to strike.

cbc.ca/news/canada/ca…

How selfish and self interested can Alberta conservative ideology be?

This strike wasn’t about money. It was about health and safety.

But the prevailing farmer attitude is “too bad for rail workers, we want a guarantee to get our product to market on time!”

No criticism of the industry that keeps pushing the limits of safety too far. Nope!

Just a self interested demand to make it impossible for rail workers to impact their bottom dollar.

When did Alberta grain farmers become such sycophantic corporate shills purely interested in their own needs at the expense of others health and safety?

I’d say about April 2019.

This is coming from Alberta farmers, not all farmers, just Alberta.

It’s a strategic action to place UCP ideology into the MSM for mass consumption & consideration. By some willing rubes.

Most wont even notice, but it’s UCP planting the idea for govt sponsored union busting.

Some history:

When Harper was in office, rail workers identified several attempts by the corporations to compromise safety for profits. Every major strike notice in the last 10 years included this concern. Every one was ignored.

But CPC ensured within 72 hours of serving strike notice, rail workers were legislated back to work. Impeded from exercising their one bargaining chip for contract negotiations. Incapable of addressing safety concerns because arbitrators don’t arbitrate outstanding issues.

The corporation has imposed longer and longer working hours with little monetary compensation. But money isn’t the issue. It’s safety. Rail corporations are chipping away at pay and safety regulations but then offering options to address safety.

The corporation has offered several times to increase safety, but at the expense of pay and benefits. Rail workers would lose half or more of their wages for safety improvements.

Of course the unions have refused. They aren’t willing to cut wages in half to improve safety.

CN was a Crown Corporation. But in 1995 it went private.

It’s now owned mostly by foreign investors. Most of which are American, the most famous being Bill Gates, who holds roughly 11% of corporate shares.

The reason for such pressure being put on Canadian rail unions? Wages.

American rail workers receive far less in wages than their American counterparts. In fact it’s almost 1/3 of what Canadian rail workers make. They also don’t have benefits. Not that CN benefits are much to brag about, but American workers have less or none.

Safety is being used as a bargaining chip in order for rail corps to drastically reduce its wage expenses, & increase its profits exponentially.

CPC govt was enabling rail corps in this effort by refusing to address safety concerns & immediately passing back to work legislation.

And now Jason Kenney & UCP are enlisting the assistance of Albertan Grain Farmers to aid in demanding rail an essential service, busting the union and making it impossible for rail workers to have safety needs addressed.

An incentive to take the pay cut?

Or is Kenney engineering cheaper rail transportation costs by working to reduce the wage expenses of rail corporations?

Who knows? 🤷🏻‍♀️But it was extremely obvious that a cacophony of Con provincial govts immediately demanded back to work legislation during the recent strike.

Lac Megantic is a tragedy that occurred in the middle of safety regulations disputes. While the explosion happened in Canada, it was a US rail corp that owned the train & track. CPC had allowed American rail corps to operate trains with one crew member, for up to 12 hour shifts.

Canadian rail corps are regulated to have 2 crew members for safety reasons. So Lac Megantic occurred because the federal govt relaxed (allowed) regulations for foreign rail corporations operating on Canadian tracks.

Lac Megantic was entirely preventable.

At the time Lac Megantic occurred in 2013, Canadian based rail corps were lobbying for the same relaxation of regulations domestically. While trying to implement an enormous cut in pay. Profits over people.

Looking at CN’s track record, safety wasn’t high on their list of priorities, but it was for workers, in Canada and the US. Continued union pressure to address safety concerns has occurred for over a decade. To no avail.

Economic focussed govts have been complicit in forcing workers back to work and overlooking safety issues that impact rail workers and the communities through which trains travel.

Now Alberta Grain Farmers are echoing demands for removing the right to strike from Rail unions.

For profits. Purely for the acquisition of money. At the expense of workers and communities.

How many more people have to die before safety issues are addressed? How many more derailments due to ignored safety standards need to happen?

How many more people need to be evacuated because of toxic chemicals threatening their health after a hazardous goods spill? How many more lobbying sessions will it take to cut rail workers pay in half or a third to bring parity to Canadian & American wages?

Why are corporations dictating Canadian regulations? Why are some political parties shilling for corporate greed? Why are farmers joining in on the chorus of union busting special interest groups?

When will my husband’s safety and the safety of the people along the track he travels daily be important?

When his union accepts a pay cut so corporations will finally start addressing health & safety?

If my husband’s work is so essential to the economy, and it is, how about we address the safety issues so consumer products can make it to market, safely!? Wouldn’t that be a better alternative than ignoring safety to force a cut in pay?

Maybe try negotiating in good faith with unions? Stop holding out safety reform for the ulterior motive, increased shareholder profits.

My husband’s life literally depends on it.

UCP & farmers, take a giant leap off a short pier.

Your profits aren’t more important than my family, & the thousands of families that transport your goods to market.

How about some support for working class who enables you to make that profit, not the corps that continue to put worker’s lives and your profits at risk?

How about some acknowledgement that rail corps were the ones who dropped your product in favour of the more lucrative crude oil shipments and required legislation to ensure your product made it to market?

You want to support UCP. Go ahead. No one is stopping you.

UCP don’t hide behind the common trope that farmers are hardworking, honest & practical.

No savvy small business person would echo demands putting others lives at risk. The very lives responsible for transporting goods to market.

Your position is ideological & transparent!

In case anyone wants to verify safety has been an issue for over a decade at CN. Here is an article about Hunter Harrison. He was CEO at CN and instigated a culture of fear. Government intervention in 2008 to address safety concerns ignored by management. business.financialpost.com/transportation…