(The following story by Brent Jang appeared on the Globe and Mail website on May 15.)
TORONTO — Rail maintenance workers who last clashed with Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. in 1995 over job security are now trying to defend their spare time away from the tracks.
A looming strike at Calgary-based CPR has shone a spotlight on both the company’s productivity drive – dubbed “execution excellence” – and union resistance over a proposal for track staff to cross traditional boundaries to report for duty. Under the proposal, for instance, work crews from Saskatchewan would need to drive to Manitoba to attend to track repairs, and vice versa. Crews in Southern Ontario and Northern Ontario would cross into each other’s turf, in certain cases, as well.
While the expansion of “work territories” would give the railway greater choice in scheduling, the union is adamantly opposed to redrawing district maps because of what it views as an attack on private time.
“We would have to travel farther to go to work,” said William Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference’s maintenance of way employees division.
“We can’t spend countless hours driving on our days off, driving for CP Rail virtually for free. We would get some money for gasoline, say 14 cents a kilometre, but that’s it. This plan would destroy families.”
He doesn’t want to see the establishment of seasonal, roving work crews on CPR’s Prairie, Eastern and Atlantic regions. “We say ‘no.’ Our people travel far enough as it is.”
A track maintenance worker would be paid for four 10-hour shifts, but not receive wages for two days of travel time getting to the site and back home, leaving just one day of rest, Mr. Brehl complained.
The Teamsters union has issued a 72-hour strike notice, meaning that members are slated to walk off the job early tomorrow.
CPR is girding for the strike by 3,200 Teamsters members, the first walkout by maintenance staff since they took part in a 19-day CPR work stoppage in 1995 that involved other unions and crippled many freight deliveries. Union officials say they were left with watered-down job security 12 years ago.
CPR spokesman Mark Seland defended the company’s efforts to gain flexibility in scheduling track crews, saying the railway is committed to becoming more efficient.
Joe Martin, director of Canadian business history at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, said CPR has historically been at or near the bottom for efficiency among the Big Six railways in North America, and well behind industry leader Canadian National Railway Co.
“CPR is improving, but they have a long way to go,” Prof. Martin said.
CPR said it has strike contingency plans to keep freight moving, which include deferring expansion projects and other capital spending that employ 2,000 workers. Over the past two days, CPR has assigned more than 1,300 managers to fill in for 1,200 employees on day-to-day maintenance duties.
The Teamsters unit has been without a contract since Dec. 31, 2006.
No new talks are scheduled to bridge the gap on working conditions, benefits and wages, which average $42,000 a year.