11 March 2012

CP Rail Fine Too Low:  Union

Thunder Bay Ontario - The union that represents about 3,000 CP Rail maintenance workers says a fine against the railway following the death of a South Gillies construction worker seems inadequate when compared to a rail line fatality in British Columbia a few years ago.
 
"To me, it shouldn't matter whether the person is an employee or someone working for a contractor, there's no difference," Teamsters Canada Maintenance of Way Division president Bill Brehl says.
 
CP Rail has been fined $100,000 in the January 2010 death of 52-year-old Keith Gudmundson, a contractor whose excavator fell off a rail car and plunged down a 25-metre cliff while he was working on the CPR line near Rossport.
 
Brehl said the fine is too low, considering that in 2007 CP Rail was fined $250,000 when one of its own employees was killed while cleaning ice from a tunnel near Revelstoke, B.C.
 
The judge who presided in that case, who noted CP Rail "is a large, profitable company," said the railway failed to provide the specific training for the job.
 
Last week's fine of $100,000 was based on a joint submission from CP Rail and Labour Canada following a plea bargain that put an end to an ongoing trial and resulted in eight of nine charges against the company being withdrawn.
 
The family of Gudmundson, a single father of two children, have also expressed their disappointment with the amount of the fine.
 
CP Rail pleaded guilty under the Canada Labour Code to "failing to ensure that all persons other than employees are informed of every known or foreseeable health or safety hazard to which they are likely to be exposed in the workplace."
 
Federal lawyer Moray Welch hasn't commented publicly on the plea bargain, but said "our evidence was that (Gudmundson's worksite) was potentially dangerous and there was a lack of diligence on (CP Rail's) part."
 
Welch called the amount of the fine "appropriate" and said CP Rail's guilty plea is "an admission of responsibility."
 
He added:  "There were seven days of evidence (during the trial). It was a complicated case."
 
What has yet to be explained is exactly how Gudmundson's machine came to fall off the rail car.
 
It's believed that Gudmundson, an experienced construction worker, was to perform scaling work on a rock cut.
 
Brehl said he's heard rumours but would not speculate.
 
An engineer's report that was part of the trial evidence has yet to be made public.
 
"Our guys (CP employees) normally do scaling work, but I am told (the company) didn't have a machine available that day," said Brehl.
 
Following the guilty plea, CP Rail issued a statement that said "safety is a core value of CP and these rare kind of accidents with tragic consequences always provide a very clear reminder through the entire company of the importance of workplace safety."
 
Brehl said the union is not happy with CP's safety record.
 
"We've managed to keep the fatalities down, but last year we had a few amputations and dozens of incidents of broken bones."
 
Bryan Meadows.