(The following article by Mike King was published in the Montreal Gazette on June 26. Brother Lamontagne is a member of BLE Division 950 in Quebec City.)
MONTREAL — Local commuter train service is being interrupted and public safety is at stake due to a national strike by unionized rail traffic controllers.
“It’s getting pretty dangerous out there,” 25-year veteran controller Marc-André Lamontagne said yesterday following a morning demonstration at downtown Windsor Station.
“There are potential catastrophic circumstances,” Lamontagne warned, referring to Canadian Pacific Railway managers filling in during the labour dispute with the Rail Canada Traffic Controllers division of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers union.
He pointed to “a defective (level) crossing in Blainville a few days ago” in which the union counted 30 school buses which crossed there, suggesting there could have been a disastrous accident.
In the meantime, Lamontagne said the approximately 45 striking controllers from the Montreal area have been setting up picket lines at commuter train stations downtown, in Montreal West and Dorion to disrupt service and “get our point across.”
Last Friday, the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport handed out notices to 7,200 users of the Montreal/Dorion-Rigaud, Montreal/Blainville and Montreal/Dorion commuter lines explaining that the delays were being caused by the contract conflict between CPR and its 240 rail controllers who went on strike June 18 – one day after they had been locked out.