The company just get you to stop at the 12 hour (they dont stop you on the tenth hour they tell you keep going and grief it).At the 12 hour you stop and wait for a recrew, sometimes it takes up to 3 hours for the recrew to arrive. Then a 3 hour ride to a place of rest (maybe not your home but anything from a hotel to a bunkhouse). So do the math work for 12 hours wait for 3 hours then ride to a place of rest for 3 hours. Do you work 18 hour days? One other thing they pay by the mile per hour,so if you are stopped waiting for a recrew you are off pay thats after 12 hours of working

“they pay by the mile per hour”

Whhhaaaattttttt ?

yes by the mile, let say 1 dollar per mile. Do 30 miles per hour you make 30 dollars do 0 miles you make nothing

Yes, by the mile, not by the mile per hour. If the train crew is sitting or being transported, aren’t they paid a different rate ?

Sitting waiting you get nothing deadheading you get a lower rate than running the train. Keep in mind if you could have finished your trip working you get the higher rate now work 12 hours wait until the recrew shows up and get paid the lower rate.

I talked to a guy that claims to work for CN (I say claims because I couldnt verify and I hate using heresy) BUT – he says that CN sends a cab to pick the guys up from wherever they hour out. For example, he says that he regularly hours out in Endako so he gets off the train and they send PG Taxi out to get him. That cant be right can it? There has to be a more cost efficient way than that?

Cabbing most likely cheaper than supporting bunkhouses and the crew gets home. There is or was a bunkhouse at Endako. Also may give CN more flexibility on crew change timing and location.

Yes all crew movements are done by taxi. Both Emerald and Hallcon have vehicles dedicated to moving crew on the highway. In town taxis are used to move crews within the city.

Crews can work up to a maximum of 18hrs with no rest period. After that the crew is required 8hrs rest at home terminal or 6hrs rest at the away from home terminal(afht).

There are no scheduled days off for a train crew. When a crews miles are at zero they must give they’re intent to take 48 hrs off once they reach 1075 miles. at that point, on they’re arrival back at the home terminal they can take 48 hrs off. Keep in mind the rest of the world gets 64 hrs off on a weekend.

If intent is not given the crew must work the 1075 miles then give their intent, then work an additional 1075 then they can take their 48 hrs off.

The big question is not where the taxi come from, it is the company wanting to reduce the rest at home. My last trip west took 43 hours from start to finish. The max rest I could book was 24. The company know the crappy lifestye we have is the reason they cant retain new employees so what do they do to run the trains, make the employees they have work more.

What I am mostly reading in these comments is the dismal state of worker’s rights and labor law in this country.

Hope you workers get the time off you need to be with your families!

People First.

I see a lot of bitching about work hours and time off, and yet CN is quite up front about working conditions for train crews when they are interviewed and hired.

I do the cleaning for the Smithers CN crew area and hear the BS that CN tries to put on the crews. Not a very attractive work environment (except for the pay).

findme
Does the CN tell the new employees about the “culture of fear in the work place”. I had never heard of it until 5 years ago now it is my daily life. How about the fact that they dont promote the best people for the job “yes men” move up. My boss was trained by ME.33 years ago when I was interviewed and hired it was a different company,I just keep telling myself 2 years just 2 years

If CN is such a bad place to work for, why not quit and go somewhere more favourable?

Because he’s just 2 years away from retirement and a pension, read his comments JB… *shakes head*

I was more looking at DPJ’s comment, Peeps. Hey, are you stalking me? This is affecting my mental health, ya know! ;-)

If you don’t like the working conditions demand that your union negotiate something better, that is what you pay dues for.

So Jim; just how is the union suppose to negotiate something better for their members when the Harper Government has taken away their right to strike? Maybe if they say pretty please enough; their employer (CN) will give them better working conditions?

Did you know this is the fifth time that the federal government has stepped in to stop a strike or lock-out since it won a majority in Parliament last May.
Three of the interventions were against Air Canada and its unions, after the government argued that a shutdown would hurt the domestic economy. And, unusually, now including this CN Rail dispute, three of those interventions took place even before a strike had even started.

“I would go so far as to say there is not another single example where it has been pre-emptive,” George Smith, a labor relations expert at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, said of the government’s quick fire actions.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/canada-labor-idINL2E8EED3L20120314

Starting to understand why all the derailments, half dead crews. Bring on shipping bitumen by rail, let’s setup a real disaster.