A Canadian Pacific Railway operated train lumbers slowly down the track through Kenora - Date/Photographer unknown.

19 July 2013

Union Says CP Rail Restructuring Has
Cost Kenora 25 Percent of its
Local Train Operators

Kenora Ontario - Train operators based in Kenora say their employer, Canadian Pacific Railway, has laid off almost 25 percent of local workers and transferred in others from places like Winnipeg, while the railway is making record earnings. CP Rail insists the layoffs are temporary and the workers will be offered more work once the shipping busy-season in the fall begins.
 
Grant Sherred is a train operator and the secretary treasurer of the local chapter of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference which represents him and his coworkers. He said the year-long company restructuring brought in by the CP Rail's new CEO, Hunter Harrison, has cost 31 Kenora residents their jobs.
 
"We had 130 guys working last summer in Kenora and now we're down to 98 and this is just the guys who run the trains, I can't speak on behalf of other departments like maintenance," said Sherred.
 
"That's 31 guys in Kenora who can't buy a house, pay property taxes, and contribute to the local economy. They hired 20 guys in January, and they haven't seen any work yet this year, maybe they will by next spring, but I'm not holding my breath."
 
CP Rail representative Kevin Hrysak said that only 28 train operators in Kenora have been laid off. He said it is normal practice at the railway to reduce the number of staff during times of the year when traffic slows down like the summer and winter, but that there will be more work available when the fall comes and shipping grain becomes a priority.
 
"These are temporary layoffs and that's due to traffic fluctuations resulting from ebbs and flows in business demand. When this does happen, we give people the opportunity to move to different parts of our network as well," explained Hrysak.
 
Sherred said being laid off during the slow season is a fact of life when you first start working on the railway. He had to work for a decade before he was kept around during the slow season. That said, he doesn't believe the layoffs are the normal, temporary kind.
 
The company-wide restructuring has meant workers who were laid off in larger centres like Winnipeg come to Kenora and take away jobs that would have gone to workers with less seniority.
 
"We have people who transferred in from Thunder Bay and Winnipeg and forced our guys into layoffs. I don't blame them for that, some of these guys have families they need to support back in Thunder Bay or wherever," said Sherred.
 
Another reason he's skeptical the jobs will be coming back is because CP Rail has made the trains longer and often double-stack the cars. Because of this, the trains are caring more cargo, so they need less of them, and as a result they need fewer crews to get it across the country. According to the railway, train length has increased by 9 percent from last year and train weight by 12 percent.
 
This kind of restructuring to reduce labour costs would be understandable, said Sherred, if the company wasn't making so much money. In CP Rail's 2013 first-quarter earnings report, Harrison said the company "achieved the best first quarter performance in CP's history," with their earnings per share jumping by 51 percent over the previous year.
 
Alan S. Hale.

Vancouver Island
British Columbia
Canada