Earlier this year in June, the BNSF Railway Company had been ordered to pay the Swinomish Indigenous Tribe $394M for trespassing trains carrying crude oil across the Swinomish Reservation several times from 2012 through 2021. Court documents state that up to 250,000 tanker cars carrying crude oil crossed through Swinomish tribal land throughout this time period. The dangers of these trains can be seen in the March 2023 derailment on Swinomish territory of a BNSF train which spilled 3,100 gallons of diesel fuel in Anacortes, WA.

A BNSF train also carrying crude oil derailed near Custer, WA in December 2020. Despite no casualties, cars leaked and caught fire, causing an environmental hazard with between 5,400 to 8,000 gallons left abandoned.

“We’re concerned about not only our safety and the safety of our brothers and sisters that we’re working with, but the public and the communities that we’re moving our trains through”, said Herb Krohn, a train conductor and the Washington State Legislative Director for SMART-TD. Train derailments in the state of Washington had more than doubled over a ten year period ending in 2023.

As long as the US rail system is under the mercy of for-profit, private interests, cutting costs at the expense of public and environmental health will undoubtedly continue to occur. It has become obvious that only a democratically-run, publicly-owned railroad can reduce these catastrophes. That is why groups such as Railroad Workers United are leading the charge for the nationalization of the railroads through the Public Rail Now campaign.

The post The State of the Railroads in Washington and the Need for Public Rail first appeared on Labor Today.

The union, representing thousands of workers between the two railroads, said contract talks had reached an impasse. The filing of a Notice of Dispute with Canada’s Labour Minister generally means the government will appoint a conciliation officer to assist in negotiations.

“This is a crucial moment for our members at CPKC, who deserve meaningful progress on the issues that matter most,” said Unifor National President Lana Payne. “We entered bargaining ready to address the persistent challenges our members face, but the employer’s lack of urgency has left us with no choice but to seek assistance through the conciliation process.”

Unifor Local 101R began negotiations with CPKC in early October to address key issues such as work ownership, job security, and poor labor relations that have severely impacted the working environment. Despite Unifor’s commitment to resolving these concerns, CPKC’s failure to address these fundamental issues prompted the union to file for conciliation.

The development comes as the latest challenge on the labor front for CPKC and its rail network that spans from Canada to Mexico which it acquired when Canadian Pacific merged with Kansas City Southern to form CPKC.

In August, the railroad company along with CN, faced a threat of work stoppage by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference Union in one of the biggest service disruptions in the country. That work stoppage began when CP and CN locked out 9,300 workers following months of talks that failed to produce new contracts. Canada’s federal labor board stepped in to impose binding arbitration to avoid a total supply chain breakdown between the Teamsters union and the railway.

The post CANADA: Unifor Files for Conciliation with Canadian Pacific-Kansas City Railroad first appeared on Labor Today.