After months of bargaining, IBEW railroad workers represented by System Council No. 11 found themselves at a standstill with their employer, Canadian Pacific Kansas City. With no other options left, members voted 96% in favor of strike action and initiated a legal strike May 31.
“The decision to strike is never an easy one, but there are times when it’s the only option left,” said First District International Vice President Russ Shewchuk. “In this case, in order to do their best by their brothers and sisters and secure a contract reflective of today’s standards, System Council No. 11 members voted to take the necessary action to get back to the bargaining table and negotiate in good faith.”
SC 11 comprises roughly 1,200 workers across a number of railways, with 300 coming from eight locals who work for CPKC as signals and communications workers. Their duties include installing, troubleshooting and maintaining signals and trackside safety equipment, as well as the installation and maintenance of the warning systems used at railroad-highway crossings.
System Council 11 members are often called on to do repairs at any hour, often in remote locations, as railroads operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“CPKC is able to safely and efficiently move large amounts of freight and passenger trains because of the work of our members,” said System General Chair Jason Sommer. “This is highly skilled work that comes from completing an extensive apprenticeship alongside on-the-job experience. This work cannot be safely performed by someone without the training that our members have.”
Despite their expertise, CPKC signals and communications workers make about $4 an hour less than workers in similar positions at other railroads. When it comes to standby pay compensation, IBEW members are on par with other railroads, but CPKC is looking to reduce that and enact a new work cycle.
It plans to change the work schedule of being on call 11 days out of every 14 days to a schedule that would be seven days on and seven days off, resulting in a reduced compensation package for SC 11 members. CPKC claims that the move is intended to attract more workers in remote areas and in places like Toronto and Vancouver that have a high cost of living.
“We just want a say in how and where these work cycles are rolled out so we can ensure they will benefit places in rural areas like Revelstoke in British Columbia and Chapleau, Ontario,” Sommer said.
In order to keep the trains running, and to stall bargaining with SC 11, CPKC has hired replacement workers, which violates Canada’s new law that does not allow a federally regulated employer to hire scab workers, Sommer said.
The strike is the first major federal strike in Canada under bill C-58, the anti-replacement-worker law.
“It will be a huge test for the CIRB to enforce this,” said Gurpal Badesha, SC 11 general chairman for western Canada, noting that the last time SC 11 members went on strike was in the late 1980s. Further, there will be a substantial onus on the company to prove to Transport Canada that their safety-mandated inspection protocols are being adhered to in the absence of 300 qualified employees. The union fully expects Transport Canada to hold the company responsible and liable in meeting these requirements.
SC 11 has filed a number of complaints to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, which interprets and implements labor laws.
CPKC also uses unpaid suspensions as an attempt to correct employee behavior, something not done by other railroads, Sommer and Badesha said. Such draconian tactics, along with lagging wages, have resulted in more than 40 vacancies in the bargaining unit as many employees simply seek better career opportunities while suspended.
“This heavy-handed discipline is toxic to employee morale,” Sommer said. “This is why so many people quit, which leaves more and more work for those who stay.”
CPKC is intentionally manipulating the slow, procedural methods of the CIRB to drag out the litigation, all the while using scabs to keep operations going while SC 11 members are out on strike, Sommer said.
“CPKC has never meaningfully engaged with us with respect to bargaining,” Sommer said. “Hopefully the CIRB will see how the law was intended to protect the workers and their rights.”
