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Vol. 80/No. 20 May 23, 2016
Rail workers respond to frame-up in Quebec disaster
BY JOHN STEELE
MONTREAL — Efforts of rail workers and others are exposing more than
ever how the rail bosses’ cost-cutting, profit-raising policies,
approved by Ottawa, were to blame for the July 2013 explosion of an oil
train in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. This opens more opportunities to push
back against the government frame-up of two rail workers for the
disaster, which killed 47 people and destroyed the downtown core.
One policy at the now defunct Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway —
ordering workers not to use automatic air brakes when parking a train —
was revealed by reporter Grant Robertson in the Globe and Mail March 7.
The Railway Association of Canada, an organization of rail bosses,
immediately contested Robertson’s article. In an open letter to the
Globe, RAC President Michael Bourque stated that automatic air brakes
are not reliable and should never be used as a back-up system to secure
a train. He repeated the claim, pushed by the rail bosses and government
from the beginning, that the disaster was the fault of the engineer for
not setting enough hand brakes.
The engineer, Thomas Harding, was the only crew member for that train
because of a special dispensation from the federal government to the MMA
bosses. He had to secure the train by himself at the end of a 12-hour
shift.
Harding and train controller Richard Labrie, both members of United
Steelworkers Local 1976, have been framed up by Ottawa on 47 counts of
criminal negligence which could bring life in prison if convicted.
Low-level former MMA official Jean Demaitre faces the same charges. June
7 is the date of their next court hearing in Lac-Mégantic.
The Globe received numerous letters from railroad workers who strongly
disagreed with Bourque.
Ed Michael, an engineer who ran freight trains for 42 years before
retiring in 2012, wrote that parking a train without using the automatic
air brake as a backup is “unequivocally negligent.”
Employees of the eight largest North American railways signed a letter
by locomotive engineer Ron Kaminkow, general secretary of Rail Workers
United, Robertson reported. The policy the Railway Association was
defending “is foolhardy and can only court disasters like the one at
Lac-Mégantic,” they wrote.
Robertson wrote April 28 that after being told of these criticisms,
Bourque withdrew his letter to the Globe.
‘Gov’t not responsible for disaster’
The Globe also reported May 2 that Ottawa shielded itself from lawsuits
from victims and creditors in relation to the Lac-Mégantic disaster by
quietly paying $75 million in “out-of-court-settlements.” Transport
Minister Marc Garneau reiterated that government officials “don’t
acknowledge that we had any responsibility” for the disaster.
This callous declaration followed an April 26 visit by Garneau to
Lac-Mégantic where on behalf of the Liberal government he rejected a
number of demands put forward by the Citizens’ and Groups Coalition for
Rail Safety, disappointing a packed audience at a town hall meeting in
the Sports Centre.
A March 14 letter from the Coalition to Garneau had called for the
establishment of an “independent investigation” into the causes of the
disaster. “Who,” the letter asked, “was the individual in Transport
Canada who approved the MMA request for a one-person train crew in order
to save money on one salary and why was this person not charged with
criminal negligence?”
On April 28 Garneau stated that for reasons of national security, rail
companies would not be required to divulge information on dangerous
cargo 24 hours before they enter a community, a demand raised by the
Canadian Federation of Municipalities.
Labor support against frame-up
The defense of Harding and Labrie is gaining support in the labor movement.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen Local Division 482 in
Washington, D.C., adopted a resolution of solidarity at its April 14
meeting. “All railroad workers — and indeed all workers in North America
— have a stake in the fight to defeat the efforts of the railroad
carriers and the Canadian government to frame up” Harding and Labrie,
wrote Division 482 President Peter Sullivan in a letter to members of
USW Local 1976 in Quebec.
Harding and Labrie, he continued, “are being scapegoated for the
negligent and dangerous practices of the MMA railway and the
government’s failure to properly regulate the safety of the railroad… .
We demand that all charges against them be dropped and we urge all
railroad workers and concerned citizens to support the defense efforts.
An injury to one is an injury to all!”
Send solidarity messages for the Harding and Labrie defense to their
union, USW 1976 / Section locale 1976, 2360 De Lasalle, Suite 202,
Montreal, QC H1V 2L1. Email: info@xxxxxxxxxx . Send copies to: Thomas
Walsh, 165 Rue Wellington N. Suite 310, Sherbrooke, QC Canada J1H 5B9.
Email: thomaspwalsh@xxxxxxxxxxx. Send contributions in Canada to
Syndicat des Métallos, 565, boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100,
Montreal, QC H2M 2V8. In the U.S. send checks to Tom Harding Defense
Fund, First Niagara Bank, 25 McClellan Drive, Nassau, NY 12123.
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