Negotiations between CP Rail and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, which represents about 2,500 employees who maintain the rails, have just begun with the last three-year contract set to expire at the end of the year.

Bill Brehl, the union's president, said the talks have to bring a renewed focus to the safety of railworkers who are imperiled by a lack of manpower and a declining emphasis by CP Rail on maintaining aging infrastructure.

"When you cut jobs to save money, (those tracks) are not going to be as safe as they should be," Brehl said.

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CPR union warns of unsafe track as contract talks get underway

CBC News Health & Science: Aug 11, 2006
Canadian Press: BILL GRAVELAND

CALGARY (CP) - As negotiations for a new contract get underway, the union representing maintenance workers at Canadian Pacific Railway is warning Canadians may be at risk due to unsafe sections of railway track across the country.

"They're not being kept to the level they should be. There can be dangerous spots, unsafe spots that we're not aware of because we're not able to get out and inspect them," said Bill Brehl, president of the Teamsters Canada Maintenance of Way Employees. The union held a news conference and rally Friday in front of CPR's head office in Calgary.

"We find unsafe track all the time and maintain it and fix it but we're going to miss some," he said. "Some we miss cause derailments and if it's a derailment with dangerous commodities, you've got deaths, you've got destruction of private property."

The current one-year contract between the approximately 2,500 maintenance workers and CPR expires Dec. 31.

Brehl conceded he was bringing this out now partly because the union is fighting for better working conditions in a new contract.

But he also said the railway is more interested in continued expansion than ensuring there are enough maintenance workers to service the existing track across the country.

"Right now we have half the employees in the maintenance department working that were working 15 years ago, yet there is twice as many trains and tonnage running on that track," he complained.

"They're not putting the money back into the present infrastructure that still has trains running on it, that still hauls dangerous commodities by schools, playgrounds, rural areas and urban areas."

Ed Greenberg, spokesman for CPR, questioned the timing of the union's comments since only a single meeting had been held so far over the new contract. But as far as safety, CPR is the best in the business, Greenberg said.

The industry average accident rate is about 3.29 train accidents per million train miles, and CPR's is 1.41, "so we're clearly a leader in rail safety," Greenberg said.

"It is a priority and certainly by working with our employees we're going to continue being a very safe railway," he said.

Greenberg also said the railway has no intention of bargaining through the media.

Meantime, the Transportation Safety Board is continuing its investigation into the cause of last week's freight train derailment.

Twenty coal cars on a CPR train left the tracks July 31 near Lytton, B.C.

Investigators are taking a closer look at a piece of heavy-gauge rail as a potential cause of the accident.