Toronto Ontario - Canadian Pacific Railway practice of training managers to drive and load trains means the company will be able to operate without a hitch in the event of a future rail strike, said CEO Hunter Harrison on Wednesday.
 
Harrison told delegates at an industry conference in New York that CP was able to move about 60 percent of customers' tonnage during a two-day strike at the railroad in February.
 
He said managers replaced the striking engineers and conductors, and added he plans to keep training white-collar workers to do front-line jobs so that CP has more clout the next time it finds itself at the bargaining table.
 
"We'll be able to sit there and say, we'll be able to run 100 percent of this railroad with managers," Harrison said.
 
"And that puts you in a little bit different leverage position."
 
Approximately 3,000 CP employees, members of the Teamsters Canada union, walked off the job over the Family Day weekend, citing poor working conditions such as a lack of reliable schedules and the failure to address worker fatigue.
 
After federal Labour Minister Kellie Leitch threatened to table back-to-work legislation, the striking workers and the company agreed to enter into binding arbitration.
 
Harrison said he visited with some of the people on the picket line and believes they are "very good employees" who wanted to get back to work.
 
He said the problem is the union leadership, but added the strike may have shown them that CP is prepared and ready for any unnecessary labour strife.
 
"I can tell you that when a train comes running by at 60 miles per hour, pulling 20,000 tonnes with the manager blowing the whistle at them, their eyes get awful big," Harrison said.
 
But Doug Finnson, president of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, rejected Harrison's claims.
 
In an interview, he said if trains were running as smoothly during the strike as the CEO suggests, then there would have been no reason for the government to threaten back-to-work legislation after just two days.
 
"Just think about it for a minute, if they were at 60 percent capacity, then what was the crisis that the government intervened on?" Finnson said.
 
"The reality is, they ran a few trains, and they didn't do a very good job."
 
Finnson said the arbitration process has not yet begun, because the federal government has not yet been able to find a mediator that is agreeable to both the union and the company.
 
He said employees are counting on a fair arbitration process to address issues raised during the strike, particularly fatigue management.
 
"I'm confident that if we get the right arbitrator, if we get an arbitrator who's strong, and is not intimidated by CP, then I'm confident we'll have success in achieving some fatigue counter-measures that are appropriate," Finnson said.
 
"If we get a weak arbitrator like they (the company) want, then the results are predictable."

Amanda Stephenson.

Comments

Thomas Stephens - You're a bold face liar Harrison. On train 113 out of Vaughan Yard, they had 3 managers on the engine, and two in a truck following it with spare parts in case they pulled that 7,000 foot train apart. Two union employees run that train at upwards of 10,000 feet. Not only that, but I saw one of your "manager engineers" trying to pull at track of cars at Toronto yard with the lead unit isolated, and he was completely unaware. So go ahead. Feel free to run your railroad with those awesome managers. We'll sit back and watch an even bigger catastrophe than the one you've already created.
 
Thomas Stephens - And you're goddamn right my eyes would be wide open IF I ever saw your lacky managers pulling a 20,000 ton train at 60 mph. For one, it would never happen, and two, if it did, I'm not sure who would be more terrified. Myself or the clowns you let run a train.
 
Steven Ruthven - CP has the best interest of its share holders in mind. But it's the backs of the Union boys and girls who make that happen. Are we sure he wasn't talking about HO gauge the managers were operating?