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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 35 October 5, 2015
(editorial)
Fight frame-up of Quebec rail workers!
All workers and unions — in the U.S., Canada and beyond — have a stake
in the fight to defeat the efforts of the Canadian government and rail
bosses to frame up Tom Harding and Richard Labrie for the 2013 disaster
that killed 47 people in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.
For decades rail bosses have boosted profits by attacking the jobs and
working conditions of workers operating trains, maintaining tracks and
in all aspects of rail transportation. They’ve slashed crew sizes from
five to two, and in some cases, like the Lac-Mégantic run, to a single
person. On-call operation, 12-hour shifts, ubiquitous fatigue,
excessively long and heavy trains, and a culture of “blame the worker”
whenever anything goes wrong are what rail workers face today.
These conditions made the disaster in Lac-Mégantic — and many since,
including the derailment of seven tank cars loaded with ethanol in South
Dakota Sept. 19 — inevitable. And they will continue to happen until we
win workers control over safety on the job.
Conditions like these are all too familiar for oil and construction
workers, nurses, truckers and others facing boss speedup and assaults on
schedules and safety.
Workers in Lac-Mégantic are fighting to win safety on the rails. They
have called a march along the tracks Oct. 11 to demand the city get an
injunction against trains carrying hazardous cargo until the notoriously
decrepit tracks are fixed. And they tell anyone who will listen that the
government and the railroad owners should be on trial, not Harding and
Labrie.
This is an important class battle. Lumber mill and paper plant bosses in
Quebec and Maine depend on these tracks. And the $72 billion Fortress
Investment Group that now owns the railroad depends on profits from
volatile oil traffic to keep it going.
Government authorities — beholden to the bosses for whom they rule and
who authorized the railroad to run oil trains with a one-person crew —
are determined to pin the blame on Harding and Labrie and let themselves
and profit-hungry rail owners off the hook.
Join the fight to defend Harding and Labrie! Tell your co-workers and
your union. Send contributions and letters of support to their union,
the Steelworkers, 565 boulevard Crémazie Est, bureau 5100, Montreal,
Quebec H2M 2V8, or to the Tom Harding Defense Fund, First Niagara Bank,
25 McClellan Drive, Nassau, NY 12123. If you can, make your way to
Lac-Mégantic Oct. 11 to join the march for rail safety.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Related articles:
Chicago conference: ‘Fight for rail safety!’
Build Oct. 11 safety protest in Lac-Mégantic
Fired Walmart workers demand jobs back as Calif. store reopens
Petition: ‘No hazardous cargo til tracks are fixed’
On the Picket Line
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