Brothers and Sisters,
 
Yesterday I had a meeting with Scott Sutherland, General Manager of TP&E at CP, concerning crew scheduling for 2009.
 
Though there are not expected to be significant changes within the Pacific and Prairie crew seasons and staffing, unofficially the Atlantic is reduced to 69 TP&E employees with a shorter season and NOSA and SOSA are both reduced in staff.
 
The company is stating that they will not run a tie program in NOSA this year, which seems extremely hard to believe.  However, we are in discussions with Mr. Sutherland to try and lessen the impact on the NOSA  Tie crew membership and find options to keep them working.
 
We have also been told that there will be cuts to the TP&E budget which will greatly affect the SOSA TP&E crews, especially all members with under 3 years seniority.  This news was dropped on us yesterday and is contrary to what we have been told up until now.  As all SOSA members know, there is more than enough work to be done on this corridor due to poor track conditions.
 
We will be investigating the conditions on all subdivisions in NOSA, SOSA and the Atlantic and especially those on which work has been deferred, with the intent of bringing any sub standard conditions to the attention of Transport Canada. We remain open to dialogue with the company first and foremost with the intent of keeping the infrastructure safe and a proper complement of staff working to achieve this.  However, if there is dispute in any area, then due diligence will demand that we take these issues to the regulatory bodies.
 
We all understand the financial state of the country but we also do not believe that safety should ever be jeopardized to increase profits.
 
Stay safe, stay strong, stay united
 
Bill Brehl
President
TCRCMWED