The wife of a BC Rail worker expecting a pink slip will ask MLAs Shirley Bond and Pat Bell, as well as Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley, to show them the same generosity they have shown CN Rail.
 
"I'm going to ask them to pay one-third of workers' mortgages, and take on one utility, so maybe we can keep our houses," Mary Jackson said Friday.
 
"My husband is expecting his pink slip any day."
 
She said she's only asking for the same gesture from governments that they showed CN in the $1 billion partnership to take over freight operations signed earlier this month.
 
"They were so benevolent to give BC Rail over to CN," Jackson said.
 
"So I think she should be benevolent so people can keep their jobs. They gave something away that was making money, but we know more people will lose their jobs than CN said."
 
Spokesman for the union representing workers Don Thorne says stressed workers at the BC Rail yard in Prince George are only feeling worse as job losses loom in the next two weeks, Don Thorne says.
 
The spokesperson for the union representing BC Rail workers said a confidential operation plan from CN Rail is disturbing in its lack of details.
 
"It's pretty vague," he said Thursday, a day after seeing the plan.
 
"We don't know what trades are going to be hit."
 
While Thorne avoided specifics, he said the number of layoffs in Prince George will be higher than CN's estimated 25.
 
Another union spokesperson, Bob Sharpe, said he expects to see 240 employees lose their jobs along the rail line from North Vancouver to Prince George.
 
"The stress is getting worse," Thorne said.
 
"Everyone is just holding on to the seat of their pants."
 
Earlier in the summer, he said some employees had to seek stress management help and were seeing marriages come apart over the impending changeover to CN.
 
"Everyone's scared," Thorne said.
 
"The guys' motivation is way down. Some are asking to take holidays to think things out. There's a lot of pressure."
 
And, he added, the pall hangs over management as well as the union.
 
"We've been a big family for years," he said.
 
"Some of us have worked together for 20 or 30 years. We're still friends and we'll still be out on the street."
 
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