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CN Rail strike continues for Prince George workers

As one of the 3,200 striking CN Rail employees across Canada, Nathan Briggs wants to make it clear. This labour dispute is not about money, it's about safety.
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Striking CN Rail workers gather at the picket line along First Avenue. The strike began Monday night and 185 conductors, trainmen and yard workers in Prince George from two union divisions of Teamsters Canada Rail Conference are affected.

As one of the 3,200 striking CN Rail employees across Canada, Nathan Briggs wants to make it clear.
This labour dispute is not about money, it's about safety.
Joined by his wife and two young kids who brought a cup of coffee to him on the picket line Wednesday afternoon on First Avenue organized by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference CTY Division 843, Briggs simply wants the company to reconsider its stance on working conditions.
He shares his union's concerns that the company is seeking longer working hours, shorter rest periods, fewer days off, crew-size reductions and the removal of yard-road distinctions in collective agreements which could result in requirements for fewer yard crews.
"We'd just like to be less tired," said Briggs, 31, now approaching his seventh year as a conductor. "We'd like to know when we're going to work and be rested for that work. We don't have regular shifts. For the most part, just a few yard jobs, six or eight people and the yardmasters, have regular shifts. The vast majority of us are just waiting on-call.
"It's about trying to get a better work-life balance."
In a typical week, operating on the trains out of a terminal whose territory extends from Smithers to the west and McBride to the east, Briggs works 10-12-hour shifts on the road, then is expected to spend anywhere from eight to 19 hours in a hotel before the eight- or 12-hour return trip to Prince George. It's a round trip of 30 or 40 hours and he does that two or three times a week. That lack of time off is taxing on his body.
Conductors work with locomotive engineers (who drive the trains) and the conductors handle the paper work and co-ordinate the loading and unloading of the train cars. Part of the job of conductors is to line up the trains in the yard using remote control boxes to drive the engines.
When he does get called for a shift Briggs is given two hours notice and has to show up within that time frame or face repercussions. An overnight stop could mean he stays in a hotel in Smithers of McBride, but sometimes that means an extended stay in a bunkhouse on the rail line in Endako, west of Fraser Lake.
"There's nothing to do there," Briggs said. "Sometimes you get cell service with Rogers but if you're on Telus or Bell you're not having a good time."
Several other CN Rail unions are not part of the strike but are required by the company to cross picket lines. That includes locomotive engineers, carmen who repair train cars, engineering crews who handle line maintenance and VIA Rail employees, are not part of the strike. CN managers are acting as conductors and yardmen during the strike.
Division 843 includes 109 CN conductors, trainmen and yard workers who operate out of the First Avenue rail yard, and their picket lines have been up 24 hours a day since the strike began. The other TCRC local in Prince George, Division 105, formerly BC Rail, represents 76 conductors who are work on the north-south rail line from Chetwynd to Quesnel. Division 105 has 24-hour pickets set up in two locations in the BCR industrial site - one on Eastern Street, one on Boundary Road, and also on Pulpmill Road near Intercon Pulp.
The workers have been without a contract since July 23.
So far, the show of support had been encouraging to the striking workers, with plenty of honking horns from passing motorists and other unions and local businesses dropping off food and beverages.
"Nobody wants to be out here, we would like to get back to work," said Briggs. "The support has been fantastic. We've had several other unions dropping off supplies and saying their thanks and walking with us. We're a  24-hour job and this is a 24-hour picket."
Nationally, TCRC represents about 12,000 workers in the rail industry and the union has for the past two decades been urging the federal government to make crew fatigue a priority to minimize risks for workers and the public.
Negotiations between the company and TCRC over the past seven months leading up to the strike were focused on discussions about staffing levels, work hours and sleep-related fatigue. The issue of rail crew fatigue gained national attention in the Foisy Report which looked into the Feb. 8, 1986 Hinton, Alta., collision between a CN freight train and VIA Rail which killed 23 people.
CN operates 22,000 kilometres of rail line it uses to move goods and resources through global shipments from Vancouver to Halifax and south to the Gulf Coast. While rail service is essential for grain farmers, potash miners, chemical manufacturers and crude oil producers, in the Prince George area the lumber industry will potentially feel the effects the most.
The Globe and Mail reported last week that CN will be laying off 1,600 of its 24,000-employee workforce, citing lower global demand for rail transportation in a weakening North American economy. CN reported its revenues for the third quarter that ended Sept. 30 at $3.83 billion.