Canadian Railroads > Teamsters Rail Canada launches hours of service campaign

Citing routine collective agreement violations regarding the 10 hour maximum service day included in the TCRC/CP contract, and also violations of the Canadian Government 12 hour maximum, the Teamsters have asked their members on CP to compile a record of all such events.

CP has several types of managers who oversee the operation of the Rail Traffic Control centre in Calgary. Titles of these positions change with regularity, but a title I am familiar with is the "planner", the manager responsible for providing crews for trains.

Another of his/her responsibilities is keeping track of crew hours, whether the 10 hour collective agreement provision or the 12 hour maximum day under Federal Regulation.

Crews have to specifically request relief in 10 hours shortly after the beginning of their service day, and also to notify the planner when they are close to the 12 hour maximum.

This is where the Teamsters have noted a pattern of managers not ordering timely relief, frequently enough for the union to request their members keep track of violations.

The metric by which the performance of a specified portion of the railway is measured by crew starts. For top management attempting "precision railroading", the fewer crew starts, the more efficiently the railway is being operated.

Some may have noted the recent tragedy at the Spiral Tunnels involved a train where the incoming crew had run out of hours (not specified whether 10 or 12 hours). Whether the actions and conversations between the incoming crew and the planner become public in the TSB investigation is hard to tell.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/19 11:07 by eminence_grise.

Another issue is the fact that the territories for the RTCs and Directors (as the planner/ operations manager/ chief RTC is now known) have doubled and in some cases tripled in size. Depending on the subdivision, and the problems they maybe experiencing, I’d venture a fair guess that these people can be overwhelmed, and really don’t have the opportunity to plan for future problems.

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Management mantra is: do what I say now, grieve later.

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In 2018, electronic logs replaced paper log books on most highway trucks in Canada, along with a program which tracked driver service hours and on duty times. A family member drove for a couple of trucking companies. The hours of service programs differed slightly, but both sent a message to the dispatch office when the service hours were coming close to maximum, and when they expired. Highway hours of service in Canada and the US are different, so that the programs had the ability to tell which country the truck was operating. With the screen turning red, and the numbers flashing, it was almost impossible for either the driver and the dispatcher to miss the event.

Railway hours of service are different, but it should be possible to create a computer program similar to the ones used in the electronic logs used in the trucking industry to alert those responsible for relieving train crews of expiring hours of service. 

I know on CN we are regularly worked “over our 10” when we have filed notice for rest with the RTC before the 7th hour on duty. Our agreement stipulates “we are to be >at our place of rest< on the 10th hour”. Failing that there is a payment of 50 miles (but we must have worked 10 hr 31 minutes) and a payment of 100 miles after having worked over 11 hr 01 min. Chump change for a corporation exceeding $1 billion in net earnings quarterly:)

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/19 10:34 by xcnsnake.

The TCRC proceeded a policy grievance to arbitration that CP was routinely violating both the collective agreement 10 hour rule and the Government regulation 12 hour rule. A few specific examples were presented to the arbitrator, who ruled that CP had violated both the collective agreement and the Government regulation.   The union offered to poll the membership to supply many more examples.

As noted by another poster, both CP and CN pay "penalty payments" when crews go over their hours.

eminence_grise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The TCRC proceeded a policy grievance to
> arbitration that CP was routinely violating both
> the collective agreement 10 hour rule and the
> Government regulation 12 hour rule. A few specific
> examples were presented to the arbitrator, who
> ruled that CP had violated both the collective
> agreement and the Government regulation.   The
> union offered to poll the membership to supply
> many more examples.
>
> As noted by another poster, both CP and CN pay
> "penalty payments" when crews go over their hours.

I wonder how long it takes the crews to get those paid:
  "Cut, cut, cut...."