CN strike underlines chasms within Canada
Surely, if there is a province that can relate to the dangers of long hours operating heavy, dangerous equipment to the point of exhaustion, it is this one.
This is what Saskatchewan is all about: long hours in the cab of a tractor, combine or a semi in a desperate and stressful rush to get a crop off. Yet when concerns about dangerously long hours possibly affecting personal and public safety were applied to people in the cab of a diesel locomotive — what 3,200 Teamsters Canada members employed by CN Rail were striking over before reaching a tentative deal on Tuesday morning — it didn’t much register.
Why? Well, we live in a world in which we are consumed by our own problems and are less concerned with others’ problems. Politicians are feasting on this. All sides appear guilty.
It’s amplified by today’s political discourse, which now sees deep divisions between East and West, right and left. And rather than attempt to bridge gaps, as has been the traditional role of politicians, it’s become rather vogue to amplify differences in an attempt to manipulate public opinion into a wider political base.
This hopefully short-lived CN strike offered ample evidence of this problem — a problem we need to fix.
We need to start by accepting the reality that we have differences based on what we do and where we live. If you are from Saskatchewan, there’s a high probability you work in or at least are affected by the agriculture and oil sectors that are non-unionized and likely have a long-standing disdain for your dependency on the railways anyway.
Had this strike been drawn out for any length of time, it could have had dire consequences for the very livelihoods of those who just spent long and dangerous hours getting off a low-quality crop. As such, it’s only appropriate for Premier Scott Moe and Economy Minister Jeremy Harrison to be concerned about the CN strike costing the Canadian economy a billion dollars a week.
That doesn’t have to mean we should ignore issues of personal and public safety behind this strike. As quoted by Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili in the assembly on Monday, one Teamster noted he is often exhausted as he runs “mile-long bombs.” (Interestingly, Harrison noted on Monday, a compelling argument for moving oil by pipeline should be part of that reasoned conversation we seem incapable of having in this country right now.)
There was ample reason to have empathy for those on both sides caught in this unfortunate dispute, yet all too many were eager to see this as just another opportunity to drive a political wedge into our already-too-divided nation.
That certainly included those demanding an immediate recall of Parliament to issue back-to-work legislation. And it certainly included some of the games played at the Saskatchewan legislature over emergency debates where the Sask. Party played the tiresome game of attempting to create the perception that their NDP opponents don’t care about the impact of the CN strike on farmers.
Nor was the game-playing restricted to the political actors. On Monday, Nutrien announced layoffs it directly attributed to this strike, something Harrison quickly seized upon by noting there were “550 people who were laid off this morning as a direct consequence of this strike. We had a potash mine that was shut down as a direct consequence of this strike.” The next day, after the tentative deal was reached, Nutrien — which actually moves the bulk of its potash through ports served by Canadian Pacific — said the layoffs are going ahead anyway. Sigh.
At the legislature on Monday, Energy Minister Bronwyn Eyre couldn’t get through an introduction of oil executive guests without turning it into a partisan exercise, and Trent Wotherspoon thought it appropriate to call Harrison a “clown.”
But no one seemed to much note — or much care — that the 150 then-striking Teamsters in the gallery appear to be going through much the same work problems as our farmers. That’s our big problem right now.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post.