Following Canadian Pacific Kansas City Rail (CPCK) and Canadian National Rail (CN) locking out staff on Aug. 22, union picket lines have already begun against the two freight companies.

Negotiations between the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) and the two companies has been ongoing for the past year, but multiple rounds of negations including meeting with Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon on Aug. 21 failed to see a deal being made.

Although the lockout came as no surprise to union members, having been announced on Aug. 9 after the Canadian Industrial Relations Board rejected CPCK and CN’s position that their rail service was essential and should preclude a work stoppage from occurring.

At issue for union members in Calgary on the picket, said Teamsters Local 355 President Bill Merriman, is less about more and much more about the work-life balance for railroaders.

“Railroaders as a whole typically spend anywhere between 75 to 100 hours a week away from home, That’s not an exaggeration. That’s just the cold, hard facts of reality,” he said.

“Both CN and CP, they want us to basically live here. By locking us out, they’re basically have told the entire country… we’re done. That’s it. We don’t care about your grain. We know it’s harvest season. We don’t care. We don’t care about your shipping. We don’t care about the Ma and Pa operation across the street that needs their truckload of bread brought in, or milk or eggs. They don’t care.”

CPCK and CN both issued statements disputing that assertion, saying that they had locked out members of the TCRC train and engine division, and the TCRC rail traffic controller divisions after losing faith in the bargaining process with the Teamsters.

“Throughout nearly a year of negotiations, CPKC has remained committed to doing its part to avoid this work stoppage. CPKC has bargained in good faith, but despite our best efforts, it is clear that a negotiated outcome with the TCRC is not within reach. The TCRC leadership continues to make unrealistic demands that would fundamentally impair the railway’s ability to serve our customers with a reliable and cost-competitive transportation service,” said CPKC in a statement.

In a separate statement made by CN, they said that do care about work life balance, and claimed that once all of the Government of Canada’s Duty and Rest Period Rules, paid sick days, personal leave days, and rest and vacation provisions in the collective agreements with the Teamsters are taken into account, conductors and engineers work approximately 160 days a year.

Time away from home at issue for union members

Merriman said the reality for staff is they are asked to be away from home for long stretches of time, returning home for short periods of around 10 hours, and then being called out for another long stretch.

“For Calgary, I may get on a train and go to Field, BC, which is a two-and-a-half to three-hour car ride, but on a train, it could take up to 12 hours. So, I get there, and now I’m stuck in a bunkhouse in a rest facility—which isn’t much of a rest facility—for a minimum of eight-to-eight hours with a two hour call, but I might be there 20 hours. I might be there 25 hours,” he said.

“Then they turn around call me, and they go, ‘Oh, you need to go to Banff. I need you to pick up a train, and you need to bring it back to bring it back to Field, BC.’ OK, so that takes another eight hours. So I’ve been gone 10 to get up there. I’ve laid 20 in the bunkhouse. There’s 30.”

He said that once the additional bunkhouse hours are added up, it’s already been 55 hours that he’s been asked to be away from his family in Calgary.

“You’ll come home and you’ll be home for 10 hours. The phone will ring two hours later you’ll be at work, and you’ll be gone for another 20, 30,40, 50, 60, hours. You’ll come home, you’ll be home for 10 hours and you’ll be gone again. That’s what the railway companies want,” Merriman said.

CN said that they know that staff are being asked to spend longer time away from their home terminals, and that they offered to remove employees “being put to bed enroute or tied up between terminals (except in emergency situations), and the removal of turn around trips at the away from home terminal (AFHT).”

The rail company claimed that the Teamsters union rejected that offer.

Both firms said have asked the Canadian Government for binding arbitration to come to an agreement. CN said that if a settlement was reached, or if arbitration was agreed to, they would remove their lockout and resume normal rail traffic.

CPCK said in their statement that the company had focused on negotiating a three-year “status-quo” contract renewal that promised what they said were competitive wage increases in line with other railway unions, but with no work rule changes.

“The only item we wish to negotiate remains reasonable adjustments to the timing of held-away from home pay that resets the negotiated buffers that existed before Transport Canada implemented work rest rule changes last year, that by default eliminated the buffer. The status quo-style offer fully complies with new regulatory requirements for rest and does not in any way compromise safety,” they said.

Merriman said that both CPCK and CN could at any time end the lockout, and come back to the bargaining table.

“The union has put together several offers to the company that would work, and they’ve turned around and told them no. They’re the ones who basically tell us what to do,” he said.

“I honestly, I wish it didn’t it didn’t come to this. I’d rather be at work right now.”