Brothers and Sisters,
 
Further to my message on Friday, I have attached the most recent safety pyramids YTD (January, 2009).
 
With personal injuries up 30% in Engineering services and ES caused train accidents up over 20%, I have to re-inforce that it is our firm belief that job cuts in track maintenance and extending current layoffs by over 6 months at this time, are an invitation to disaster. When you have an increase in track caused derailments, you should not be lessening the protection, you should be increasing it.
 
I believe that there is a direct link between the December layoffs and the January "spike" in train accidents and personal injuries.
 
We were told that this current decision of reducing the work force was brought about by a decrease in traffic, especially in Ontario, and directly linked to the auto industry and inter modal, which has caused a decrease in profits. But this is a far greater issue than job loss and profits. CP could easily pay for these employees any number of ways. The sale of one corporate jet could keep all 57 performing their vital duties for years.  A fraction of the 5 million dollar fine that CP paid this year for overcharging grain farmers, could do the same.
 
As has been pointed out previously, there was a large portion of rail replacement that has been deferred this year on the Windsor sub already... allegedly to cut costs.  Now CP is reducing the maintenance forces on this same territory by two (2) complete maintenance crews.  
 
The Windsor Mobile and the London Light Maintenance crews were served their notices on Friday with an expected layoff of March 27th. We believe from reports in the field, that this corridor is badly in need of constant maintenance and inspection, as well as containing  areas where rail is becoming increasingly closer to possible failure.
 
And the thing about track is that it continually deteriorates, whether you are running one  train or a hundred. And the closer it is to "borderline", the quicker it will fail.
 
When you look at the number of defects being found by sperry car, track evaluation and simply by visual inspection, it is easy to see that for this railway to run on a safer level, they need to increase their maintenance schedules... not drastically reduce them.
 
There are those that may not consider a temporary reduction of 57 positions across the country as significant when compared with the hundreds of jobs being lost in other departments or the thousands that are being lost in other industries. However, I would suggest that it depends on the positions that are lost and their necessity to the overall safety of the track infrastructure and therefore the safety of all Canadians, not necessarily the number.
 
The Southern Ontario Service Area is a densely populated corridor which makes it all the more critical that this track is maintained to a safe level...at all times. Risk management concerning this area being decided in Calgary for the purpose of maintaining profit levels is not the way to go, in my opinion.
 
If there is a temporary decrease in traffic, now is the time to go in and repair and rebuild the infrastructure. It is not time to defer repair projects...it is the time to get them done. Get them done while the track time is available.
 
Also during this time of cost cutting, all of you must be extra vigilant for defects and insure that they continue to be reported. I would suspect that if they are cutting office staff as well (though I haven't heard of that yet) we may see an increase in "errors" when it comes to reporting incidents to the TSB (Transportation Safety Board).  Less "eyes on the track" also means that there is an increased chance that defects could be missed until it is too late.  
 
You must also always remain focused on personal safety.  The increase in injuries is staggering. less people doing more work will almost always include a rise in injuries.
 
If through risk management, the company is willing to risk the safety of the infrastructure to keep their profit levels at an inflated rate, it stands to reason that in areas of your safety, risks could be run that we do not see as acceptable.
 
Remember, you have the right to know, the right to participate and the right to refuse.  At the SMS (Safety Management Systems) sub-committee of ACRS (Advisory Committee on Rail Safety), both CN and CP representatives are arguing to keep our involvement in Risk Assessment a lot lower than we need it to be. They claim that they need "flexibility" in assessing the risk on our membership.
 
I disagree completely. Ask yourself, who better to assess the risk to themselves, than the employee performing the work and their representatives?  Who has more at stake?
 
Your safety is much too important to leave in the hands of management.
 
Stay safe, stay strong, stay united.
 
Bill Brehl
President
TCRC MWED

 

Safety Pyramids YTD  >>>