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May 29, 2012 - No. 79
Escalating Attacks on CP Rail Workers
Oppose Back-to-Work Legislation
Criminalizing CP Rail Workers
Striking CP Rail workers,
Chapleau, Ontario.
Escalating
Attacks
on CP Rail Workers
• Oppose
Back-to-Work Legislation Criminalizing CP Rail Workers
• Support the Just Demands of CP Rail Workers
For Your Information
• Use of Back-to-Work Legislation Against
Railway Workers
• Notice of Motion -- An Act to Provide for the
Continuation and Resumption of Rail Services"
Saskatchewan
• Labour Standards and Rand Formula Under
Attack in Labour Code Consultation
Quebec
• Locked Out Alma Workers Demonstrate to Get
Rio Tinto Off Olympic Podium
Escalating Attacks on CP Rail Workers
Oppose Back-to-Work Legislation
Criminalizing CP Rail Workers
Calgary
TML calls on workers across Canada to condemn
the back-to-work legislation, An Act to provide for the
continuation and resumption of rail service operations, against
the CP Rail workers introduced on May 28.
More than 4,800 Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) workers
went on strike
across Canada on May 23. The workers, represented by the Teamsters
Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) include conductors, yardmen, locomotive
engineers and rail traffic controllers. As with the postal workers and
Air Canada workers, the
Harper dictatorship has invoked national security and the "fragile
economic recovery" as a pretext to criminalize the right of CP Rail
workers to resist the company's demands to gut their pensions and
retiree health benefits, and to back up their demands for safe and
healthy working conditions and scheduling.
 Labour Minister Lisa Raitt
professes concern and admiration for the
tremendous contribution of Canada's railway workers who are responsible
for the transportation of immense quantities of goods produced by
Canadian workers and farmers. But behind her weasel words is the naked
assertion that neither railway
workers nor any other workers can be permitted to effectively put
economic pressure on the monopolies to force them to negotiate in good
faith. Workers are to be deprived of this power with the result that
the monopolies can legally deploy labour anywhere they wish under
whatever conditions they dictate. Changes
to EI and the Temporary Foreign Workers program are also part of the
new regime of forced labour, which is unfolding at an escalating pace.
Each time the Harper government acts to criminalize the right of a
section of workers to resist, it is taking one more step to bring in a
new regime of what amounts to slave
labour.
With each assault on the right of workers to resist and
organize,
the government expands the use of its prerogative powers. At this time
the prerogative powers are being exercised to ram legislation through
the House of Commons in a manner without precedent. On the first day of
the strike, Labour Minister Lisa
Raitt stated she would proceed to enact back-to-work legislation. On
May 24, she gave notice of introduction of the bill entitled "An Act to
provide for the continuation and resumption of rail service
operations." The government imposed closure with a Notice of Motion to
limit discussion on the back-to-work legislation
to three and a half hours -- two at second reading, one hour in
committee and a half hour for third reading. Any consideration of
Parliament's role to give due consideration to legislation no longer
operates. The Parliament becomes a farce when no opportunity is
provided for MPs to discuss legislation or for the Official
Opposition to hold a government to account. As it stands, discussion on
legislation is fast becoming a thing of the past. Even when time is
given for debate, the government uses it to sidestep questions and
defame the opposition.
 Railway workers make an
important contribution to the Canadian
economy, moving immense amounts of goods across Canada. Wages, benefits
and security in retirement commensurate with the work they perform and
the contribution they make are theirs by right. Their health and safety
concerns affect not only
the well-being of railway workers themselves, but, in the event of an
accident, the safety of communities across Canada as well as the
natural environment.
As the union points out, CP Rail had no need to come to
a mutually
beneficial negotiated settlement with the railway workers because it
could count on the Harper government to intervene on its behalf. In
fact, the government promise of back-to-work legislation egged on the
company to force the union into
a strike. Now the Harper dictatorship blames the striking CP Rail
workers, by claiming the strike is disrupting the supply chain,
jeopardizing Canada's international competitiveness and harming
Canada's "fragile economic recovery." Meanwhile the monopoly media
repeat the mantra that the railway workers are just
greedy and privileged and should just wake up to the "new reality" that
security in retirement is a thing of the past.
Across the country, workers are making just demands for
wages and
working conditions commensurate with the services they perform.
Students are affirming that the right to education must be provided
with a guarantee. It is part of the fight for the right of all sections
of society to the public institutions which
provide education, health care and other social programs essential for
people's well-being. When the people take action to dispute the "right"
of the monopolies to seize more and more of the assets of the society
to which they claim they are entitled, the people's rights to resist
and
organize are criminalized so as to
provide private monopoly interests with a guarantee. It is
unacceptable. It is not the people who have a false sense of
entitlement but the rich and the governments in their service.
The back-to-work legislation against the CP Rail workers
shows the
need for workers to establish a new equilibrium in labour relations
where the rights of workers and the public good are upheld.
Do not permit the criminalization of the right to resist
and organize! All out to support the CP Rail workers!
On the Picket Lines
Hamilton steelworkers
join striking CP workers at the Kinnear rail yard.
Mactier, ON
 
Thunder Bay; Winnipeg
Saskatchewan
Revelstoke
Support the Just Demands of CP Rail Workers
At midnight on May 23, more than 4,800 Canadian Pacific
Railway (CP)
workers went on strike across Canada. The workers, represented by the
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) include conductors, yardmen,
locomotive engineers and rail traffic controllers. They voted to take
strike action by a margin
of more than 95 per cent. On the first day of the strike, Labour
Minister Lisa Raitt threatened to criminalize the workers with
back-to-work legislation, which was introduced on May 28.
CP Rail is demanding major concessions from the workers
on pensions,
retiree health benefits and work rules that directly impact safety. The
company is demanding an end to the defined benefit pension plan and its
replacement with a savings plan known as a defined contributions plan.
In an internal memo to
employees, the company states that there is no impact for current
pensioners and no change to pension credits already earned for the
active workers. But the company wants to put all future pension credits
for both current workers and new hires on a defined contribution
savings plan. Future pension income would
be cut by up to 40 per cent. CP is also demanding cuts to retirement
health care, dental and prescription benefits, and elimination of
health care benefits entirely at age 65.
 Health and safety issues
are also a major concern. CP refuses to
address the union's fatigue management proposals, including the need
for adequate time off work to recover from the effects of fatigue and
the union's proposals related to earned days off. Instead, CP wants
changes to the work rules which would
require working 12 hours without rest, raising the monthly mileage
maximum (currently set at 3,800 miles). It is also demanding a wage
freeze for 2012.
These demands not only deprive the workers of what
belongs to them
by right, but they also endanger public safety as a result of long
hours of work. Working conditions of CP workers are linked with the
safety of the Canadian people. These workers are responsible for
transporting massive amounts of freight
including hazardous industrial materials across Canada. Derailments and
spills affect not only the workers but the people in the affected area
as well as causing environmental damage, especially when rivers and
lakes are affected.
The Harper dictatorship is to be held to account for
servicing CP
Rail's extortion of concessions from its workers and depriving the
workers of the working conditions and security in retirement which are
theirs by right. The government's duty is to enforce the obligation of
companies to provide the workers with
working conditions and remuneration necessary for the economic security
and safety of their workers.
The company's endangerment of the well-being of workers
and the
environment puts the lie to the claim that "the workers are negatively
impacting the fragile economic recovery." The minute the workers
exercised their right to strike, Minister Raitt said, "The conflict
could cost the Canadian economy a half
billion per week and could cause thousands of job losses."
"The government is concerned about the national economic
importance
that this decision will have and we are ready to act in the interests
of the national economy," Raitt said. She tried to pit one section of
the working class against another saying workers in other industries
such as auto, coal and potash would
suffer if the rail workers were permitted to continue to strike. "We
want to ensure that the parties do their best to agree, but they must
also understand that if they aren't capable of agreeing, we will have
to intervene," she told the workers through the press.
"The work stoppage is preventing our ability to keep
products moving
in and out of Canada and that undermines Canada's reputation as a
reliable place to do business," said Raitt.
Introducing back-to-work legislation, Raitt said:
"Simply put, the
strike can't go on." Sounding like Mussolini, Raitt told the House of
Commons on Monday. "We need to get the trains running again."
She estimated a prolonged strike would cost the Canadian
economy
$540 million per week. This actually shows the immense productive
capacity of the Canadian working class. Because workers are the
creators of this added-value, they have first claim on the wealth they
produce. Raitt is demanding that the workers
make more sacrifices, denying that they have already sacrificed their
health and family and social lives as a result of very long hours of
work and overtime. She is defending private interests instead of
upholding public right. By forcing concessions on the CP workers, it
means even more added-value produced by
the workers goes to pay the rich. Not only does this deprive the
workers of what is theirs by right, but it will actually harm the
economy.
 Besides directly helping the
monopolies by imposing back-to-work
legislation and mandatory arbitration that puts more and more of the
wealth produced into the pockets of the rich, the government is driving
the workers' wages lower and lower, including through its most recent
plan to force unemployed workers
to accept jobs at 10 to 30 per cent less than they previously made.
The government is derelict in its duty for acting to
defend private
interests at the expense of the public good and the rights of the
workers. Rather than protect the essential productive forces with laws
to further develop the economy in a manner that benefits society, the
government has removed the CP Rail workers'
right to strike and organize. The workers are left with nothing but old
labour laws which are supposed to guarantee their right to negotiate
wages and working conditions commensurate with the jobs they perform,
but no longer do so. These labour laws have been rendered ineffective
by back-to-work legislation. By
intervening on the side of the monopolies to achieve their private aims
in the name of the economy and national security, the government is
causing grave harm to the economy and interests of the people of this
country as well as to the interests of the workers directly involved.
All Out to Support the CP Rail Workers!
No to Back-to-Work Legislation!
For Your Information
Use of Back-to-Work Legislation
Against Railway Workers
The first Canadian back-to-work law, passed in 1950,
criminalized the resistance of the railway workers. Since 1950 there
have been 33 Acts of Parliament
criminalizing strikes and forcing workers back to work. Eight of
these were used against railway workers.[1]
Research compiled by the National Union of Public and
General Employees (NUPGE) as part of its ongoing Labour Rights are
Human Rights campaign shows that in the last 29 years, the federal
government alone passed 14 pieces of back-to-work legislation.
Provincial governments across the country have enacted
76 pieces of back-to-work legislation. Most of this legislation (51 of
the 90 pieces of legislation) not only forced workers back to work
after taking strike action, but also arbitrarily imposed settlements on
the striking workers.[2]
Final offer selection has been used on three occasions
since 1982 in federal legislation, against port workers is 1994,
railway workers in 1997 and postal workers in 2011.
Notes
1. Prior federal back-to-work
legislation for railway
workers:
- Canada Railway Continuation Act 2009
- Railway Continuation Act 2007
- Maintenance of Railway Operations Act, 1995
- Maintenance of Railway Operations Act, 1987
- Maintenance of Railway Operations Act, 1973
- Maintenance of Railway Operation Act, 1966
- Railway Operations Continuation Act , 1960
- Maintenance of Railway Operation Act, 1950
2. National Union of Public and
General Employees (NUPGE)
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/06/15/f-faq-back-to-work-legislation.html
http://www.labourrights.ca/content/federal-government
http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/laws/stat/sc-1997-c-34/latest/sc-1997-c-34.html
http://www.parl.gc.ca/LegisInfo/BillDetails.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&billId=5089903
http://www.nupge.ca/content/4293/ituc-report-cites-major-restrictions-labour-rights-canada
Notice of Motion -- "An Act to Provide for the
Continuation and Resumption of Rail Services"
On May 24, a Notice of Motion was put forward as
follows:
The Leader of the Government in the House of Commons -- That,
notwithstanding any Standing Order or usual practice of the House, a
bill in the name of the Minister of Labour, entitled An Act to provide
for the continuation and resumption of rail
service operations, shall be disposed of as follows:
(a) the said bill may be read twice or thrice in one
sitting;
(b) not more than two hours shall be allotted for the
consideration of the second reading stage of the said bill, following
the adoption of this Order;
(c) when the bill has been read a second time, it shall
be referred to a Committee of the Whole;
(d) any division requested in the Committee shall be
deferred until the end of the Committee's consideration of the Bill;
(e) not more than one hour shall be allotted for the
consideration of the Committee of the Whole stage of the said bill;
(f) not more than one half hour shall be allotted for
the consideration of the third reading stage of the said bill, provided
that no Member shall speak for more than ten minutes at a time during
the said stage and that no period for questions and comments be
permitted following each Member's speech;
(g) at the expiry of the times provided for in this
Order, any proceedings before the House or the Committee of the Whole
shall be interrupted, if required for the purpose of this Order, and,
in turn, every question necessary for the disposal of the stage, then
under consideration, of the said bill shall be put and
disposed of forthwith and successively, without further debate or
amendment, and no division shall be deferred;
(h) when the Speaker has, for the purposes of this
Order, interrupted any proceeding for the purpose of putting forthwith
the question on any business then before the House, the bells to call
in the Members shall ring for not more than thirty minutes;
(i) commencing when the said bill is read a first time
and concluding when the said bill is read a third time, the House shall
not adjourn except pursuant to a motion proposed by a Minister of the
Crown;
(j) no motion to adjourn the debate at any stage of the
said bill may be proposed except by a Minister of the Crown; and
(k) during the consideration of the said bill in the
Committee of the Whole, no motion that the Committee rise or that the
Committee report progress may be proposed except by a Minister of the
Crown.
Saskatchewan
Labour Standards and Rand Formula Under Attack in
Labour Code Consultation
The Saskatchewan Party government on May 2, 2012 issued
a consultation paper reviewing labour legislation in Saskatchewan, A
Consultation
Paper
on
the Renewal of Labour Legislation in Saskatchewan.
Premier Brad Wall says that the review is for the purpose of consulting
with the people of
the province on updating labour laws, while consolidating various
pieces of labour legislation into a single code.
The opposition NDP and labour union leaders say the
consultation is
a fraud. They say the government has already made up its mind to bring
in changes that will undermine the rights of workers and their
organizations.
Premier Wall raised the issue of unions collecting their
own union
dues in the election last year. The consultation paper suggests the Trade Union Act
should not include a requirement for union dues to be collected by
employers because it says it has "heard from different groups" that
this
is not necessarily the preferred way. "Instead, this should be an issue
for negotiation between the union and employer," the paper states.
Wall and Labour Minister Don Morgan
have recently made remarks regarding labour laws, such as saying that
teenage
workers and low-income workers should be exempt from paying union dues.
Current laws stipulate that
employers and employees can make an agreement on varying overtime and
holiday protection for workers but written permission from the Ministry
is required. Morgan has said that changes could be made regarding the
requirement that employers get written permission exempting them from
these labour laws.
Who Said What
Tom Graham, CUPE Saskatchewan
"We have no opposition to some discussion around
specific labour issues, but this is just too broad and what's behind it
all?" asked Tom Graham, president of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees Saskatchewan.
"I think it's smoke and mirrors to a bigger issue. It's
an attack on unions," Graham said. "Furthermore, some of this stuff
goes back 60 years to 1944, and we're supposed to review it all in 90
days?"
Terry Parker, Saskatchewan Building Trades
These changes will be detrimental to unions, according
to Terry Parker from the Saskatchewan Building Trades Council.
"Our strength is in numbers and working together as a
union, as a collective," Parker says. "When you have it all fragmented
that takes apart the whole system."
NDP Opposition Leader John Nilson
"The premier is trying to sell his sweeping review of
labour legislation as a consultation but it's clear he's already made
up his mind on what the coming labour legislation will look like,"
Nilson said.
Nilson said Premier Wall's comments about
possibly exempting teenagers from paying union dues is an example of
the premier "dictating the terms of the legislation in advance of the
so-called consultations."
Reference
A Consultation Paper on the Renewal of Labour
Legislation in Saskatchewan.
http://www.lrws.gov.sk.ca/consultation-paper-renewal-labour-legislation
Government News Release on Labour Law Review:
Saskatchewan Government to Consult On Renewal of Labour Legislation
http://www.gov.sk.ca/news?newsId=36081592-89b7-4617- bf51-7cbfaf052792
(CBC,
Star-Phoenix, Leader-Post)
Quebec
Locked Out Alma Workers Demonstrate to
Get Rio Tinto
Off Olympic Podium
On May 24 more than one hundred locked-out Rio Tinto
workers
from Alma, Quebec, demonstrated in front of the Quebec City Convention
Centre as part of the Off the Podium Campaign to demand that Rio Tinto
be withdrawn from the sponsors of the upcoming London Olympics and not
be allowed to produce the
Olympic medals. The demonstration was held as the International Olympic
Committee was meeting in Quebec City in preparation for the Olympics.
Marc Maltais, president of the Syndicat des travailleurs
de l'aluminium d'Alma who have now been locked out for almost five
months, explained the aim of the action:
"We would be very happy that Rio Tinto Alcan is linked
with the Olympic Games if it respected human and environmental rights
and especially, in our case, the rights of Quebec. Rio Tinto in its
lockout in Alma is violating the anti-scab legislation." Maltais also
told the press that he does not want the efforts
of the Olympic athletes to be tarnished by being connected with Rio
Tinto.
Besides protest actions, the Alma workers are asking the
people to write letters to the Canadian Olympic Committee asking the
committee to support them.
The Off the Podium Campaign is part of the global
campaign of the Syndicat des Métallos to raise support for the
Alma workers and demand that Rio Tinto lift its lockout and sign an
acceptable contract with them.
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