Moose Jaw Saskatchewan - Workers for Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) in Moose Jaw are concerned about a proposed piece of federal legislation.
 
Bill C-49, also known as the Transportation Modernization Act, seeks among other measures to allow rail companies more access to the surveillance equipment installed in locomotives.
 
That equipment, the work of Transport Canada (TC), is currently only accessible to companies when something goes wrong for investigative purposes.
 
"We think it's a tool to be used for discipline," said Bill Pitts, a local chairman with Teamsters 510, which represents workers with CP in Moose Jaw.
 
Pitts said workers are concerned the legislation would provide company managers unfettered access to watch employees all of the time, without respect for employee privacy.
 
Pitts said there are already recording devices installed for important purposes surrounding safety.
 
"The way it is today, TC has got access to any inward facing cameras, if there is a severe incident, depending on what that incident is, TC has it," he said.
 
Along with inward facing cameras, there are also audio recording devices installed in locomotives, which are similar to the ones found in airplane cockpits.
 
In a media release, the federal government defended the Transportation Modernization Act as being needed to improve the country's overall transportation system, while making it safer at the same time.
 
In the release, Minister of Transport Marc Garneau said the proposed legislation is important for the country.
 
"The time has come to modernize our policies and practices to provide a safer, more competitive, and respectful system that can respond to modern conditions and to Canadians' expectations," he said.
 
Pitts argued that the union does not have an issue with measures designed to increase safety, but that they have very specific concerns about what the legislation could lead to, as it is currently written.
 
"The issue is the managers coming in and disciplining people on a regular basis for talking about another manager in the locomotive cabin," he said.
 
Pitts is not the only person who is concerned about what this potential legislation could mean for railroad workers.
 
John Cooper is the legislative representative for Teamsters 510.
 
He explained that he does not see the legislation as it is currently written as balanced.
 
"Public safety does not trump my right to privacy, an individual's right to privacy," he said.
 
Cooper said he did not have an issue with the federal government having access to recording devices.
 
"If there's an incident, the TC and CP should have access to that, and they should figure out what went wrong," he said.
 
The concerns of the employees are shared by Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan MP Tom Lukiwski, who spoke out against the bill in parliament last week, saying the government has not done enough to make sure workers will be protected.
 
"Primarily, I am concerned that the government has yet to give solid assurances that privacy of employees will be protected," he said.
 
In regards to safety, Lukiwski said he understands the need for measures like surveillance, but added that safety is not the only concern that is in the mix.
 
"I can understand the reasoning behind this clause, the government says they want to ensure safety and of course we can all remember the Lake Megantic tragedy, but I think the safety concerns have to be balanced with the privacy concerns of all Canadians," he said.
 
He noted the government has not done anything to address his concerns about potential privacy violations the bill could cause.
 
"I've yet to hear any real assurances or plans from this government as to how to address and balance those privacy concerns many union members may have," he said.
 
When speaking about how safety could potentially be improved on the rails, Pitts said there is one major issue that needs to be addressed.
 
"The real issue with today's railroad, 100 percent is fatigue, we're all tired out there," he said.
 
According to Pitts a major cause of this issue is the company not being well organized about when a train is scheduled to head out.
 
This leads to people showing up to work and having to wait, at times hours, before their train is ready to leave.
 
He said he feels there are real and immediate solutions to the issue of fatigue.
 
"What can be done is have people with their finger on the pulse with these trains," he said.
 
Pitts said he felt that these changes would make a real difference for public safety, as opposed to expanding the access to visual and audio surveillance.
 
"We absolutely don't need the managers, Big Brother, standing over our shoulder on a 24 hour basis, we just don't need that," he said.
 
Michael Joel-Hansen.