UPS, Teamsters have taken a major step in negotiations. But a strike is still on the table

Olivia Evans, Louisville Courier Journal
Mon, July 3, 2023

UPS and its workers' union are closer to reaching a deal that could improve conditions for more than 340,000 employees nationally.

Over the weekend, the Teamsters union announced it has reached a tentative agreement with the company on "three major economic issues" — a final piece in what the union has called "the largest collective bargaining agreement in North America."

But union leaders warned a strike isn't yet off the table as both parties make a final push to reach a full agreement on a new four-year contract by July 5.

The labor contract between UPS and Teamsters will expire at midnight July 31 if an agreement is not reached between the two sides. In June, the Teamsters passed a strike action vote with 97% approval, which would allow the Teamsters to strike if they deem it necessary.

Here's what to know.

What happened with UPS, Teamsters over the weekend

In a tweet Saturday, Teamsters announced UPS had tentatively agreed to three major contract revisions that would improve workers' pay and schedules.

The changes include ending forced overtime on drivers' days off, establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday and getting rid of a two-tier wage system the union says is "unfair" to drivers who are "flexible" and are not classified as full-time drivers.

"Gains made by the Teamsters at the national table with UPS today cannot be overstated," International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said in a tweet.

To date, the Teamsters and UPS have already reached a tentative agreement on more than 55 non-economic issues, with the union winning everything its wanted for its members, O'Brien said.

Under the new tentative agreement, flexible drivers who do not work traditional Monday-Friday shifts would be reclassified as Regular Package Car Drivers, placed in seniority and have their pay adjusted, which in many cases will increase their wages. Prior to the agreement, flexible drivers were working equal hours but were paid less due to the nature of their shift.

"Whether it’s overtime our members don’t want to take, holidays they know they deserve or equal pay for equal work, if we stay united and commit to protect each other to the bitter end, there is no chance in hell we lose this fight," Teamsters General Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman said.

Why a deal must be reached by July 5

Wednesday marks a crucial deadline for UPS.

Since the start of negotiations in April, the Teamsters have made it clear they would not work a "single minute" past the expiration of the contract. In order to prevent a strike, UPS and the union must reach a tentative agreement in time for its union members to review the deal and vote to ratify the contract.

UPS has said it will reach that agreement by July 5.

On June 30, UPS presented the Teamsters with a revised contract the union deemed acceptable to negotiate. This new offer persuaded the Teamsters to return to the bargaining table over the weekend, resulting in the revised tentative agreement.

"We are encouraged the Teamsters are ready to continue negotiations and discuss our most recent proposal," Michelle Polk, a spokesperson for UPS told the Courier Journal in a statement Friday. "We look forward to the union’s input so we can reach a timely agreement and provide certainty for our employees, our customers and the U.S. economy."

The labor contract between UPS and Teamsters is composed of a slew of supplemental contracts alongside the national contract. By mid-May a tentative agreement had been reached on all supplements except two: Louisville and Northern California. Late last week, a tentative agreement was reached on the Louisville and Northern California supplemental contracts.

"I think it's we're moving forward very positively," said Joe Sexson, a union steward and local negotiating committee member for Teamsters Local 89. "This is probably the best [supplement] we've had the 23 years I've been here."
Why experts say a strike is unlikely

Negotiations have been tense between the Teamsters and UPS, with the union declaring a nationwide strike is "imminent" on June 28.

That same day, Teamsters Local 89, the union representing roughly 10,000 UPS workers in Louisville, held a practice picket outside of the Worldport facility – a move replicated by Teamsters union shops coast to coast.

Despite the declaration of a strike, however, experts at Deutsche Bank "feel comfortable that a strike will not occur," according to a risk analysis by the bank.

In May, Deutsche Bank forecasted the tentative agreement on flexible drivers becoming reclassified and estimated the change would cost UPS roughly $140 million, less than 0.2% of the company's current cost structure.

"This is an incredibly small amount for what appears to be the main ask by the Teamsters," read the strike risk analysis written by Amit Mehrotra and Chris Robertson.

Mehrotra and Robertson noted the Teamsters strike fund sat at $346 million at the end of 2022 — a 20% decline from 2013 despite active membership remaining at a constant rate. The bankers estimated a strike would cause every UPS worker to take a roughly 70% pay cut and the strike fund would be depleted within three weeks.

"Beyond the Teamster's financial readiness for a strike, which appears limited, in our view, we also note the significant benefits enjoyed by UPS Teamsters," Mehrotra and Robertson wrote. "The bottom line is it's been better to be a UPS Teamster compared to almost any other comparable job, and the Teamsters organization have greatly benefited from UPS's growth."

Contact reporter Olivia Evans at oevans@courier-journal.com or on Twitter at @oliviamevans_.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: UPS, Teamsters return to the bargaining table to avoid strike

Workers strike at major Southern California hotels over pay and benefits
 

DAMIAN DOVORGANES
Mon, July 3, 2023 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Workers picketed major Southern California hotels again Monday after walking off the job during the July Fourth weekend to demand better pay and benefits.

The strike by bellhops, front desk agents, room attendants, cooks, servers and dishwashers began early Sunday in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as summer tourism ramps up. Employers accused the union of failing to negotiate.

Members of Unite Here Local 11 voted last month in favor of authorizing the strike. In addition to higher wages, the union wants improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.

Contracts expired at midnight Friday at more than 60 hotels, including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across Southern California and Arizona.

Osiris Gaona, a phone operator at InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown, was joined on the picket line by her husband, 15-year-old son and 7-year-old granddaughter. They'll march again Tuesday, the Fourth of July, she said.

“We are hoping to send a message to the owners of all the hotels,” Gaona said. “We are asking for a pay raise because it costs so much to live here in California, especially in LA.”

The walkout comes amid holiday celebrations and a major anime convention in Los Angeles. The union, on its website, urged guests to “not eat, sleep or meet” at the striking hotels to support the workers. But it wasn't immediately clear whether the strike resulted in guests checking out early or lacking services.

It's the latest action by a restive labor movement in California.

Hollywood writers have been on strike since early May. In March, the giant Los Angeles Unified School District was shut down for three days by bus drivers, custodians and other support staff. Los Angeles teachers supported that strike and then reached a deal on their own contract without walking out. Oakland teachers went on strike for more than a week, and slowdowns occurred at the big ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach before West Coast dockworkers reached a tentative settlement in June. Actors also may strike.

The soaring cost of living in greater Los Angeles is a significant problem for hotel workers, according to the union.

Last week, a deal was reached with its biggest employer, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, which has more than 600 union workers. Union officials described the tentative agreement, which provides higher pay and increased staffing levels, as a major win for workers.

Talks with other hotels — including the Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons Regent Beverly Wilshire and Anaheim Hilton, near Disneyland — were at a stalemate. A coalition of more than 40 hotels involved in talks accused union leaders of canceling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years, the group said.

“From the outset, the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group,” the hotel coalition said in a statement Sunday. “The Union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs.”

The work stoppage had been anticipated, and the properties are “fully prepared to continue to operate these hotels and to take care of our guests as long as this disruption lasts,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coalition.

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Associated Press writers John Antczak and Christopher Weber contributed.

Korean Air airlines flight attendants are dropped off their bus on the street sidewalk of the InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown as striking hotel workers rally outside Monday, July 3, 2023, in downtown Los Angeles.

 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Los Angeles-area hotel workers strike over wages, housing


Los Angeles-area hotel workers strike over wages, housing


Sun, July 2, 2023

By Steve Gorman and Gabriella Borter

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Thousands of Los Angeles-area hotel workers went on strike on Sunday demanding pay hikes and improved benefits in a region where high housing costs make it difficult for low-wage earners to live close to where they hold jobs, union officials said.

Unite Here Local 11, which represents 15,000 workers at more than 60 major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties, declared the strike a day after the workers' contract expired. It marks one of the largest strikes to hit the U.S. hospitality industry in recent years.

The labor dispute comes during the July Fourth holiday weekend as Southern California's busy summer travel season goes into high swing. It overlaps with a Hollywood screenwriters strike that was headed into a ninth week, already taking a toll on the Los Angeles economy and showbiz production.

Hotel workers, including housekeepers, dishwashers, cooks, waiters, bellhops and front-desk agents, struggle to afford housing in cities where they work, and many were idled during the COVID-19 pandemic while industry profits soared, the union said in a statement.

"Our members were devastated first by the pandemic and now by the greed of their bosses," union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement.

An industry bargaining group representing more than 40 hotels accused the union of political posturing, pursuing the strike as an organizing tool and failing to negotiate in good faith.

Several thousand workers walked off the job starting Sunday morning at about a dozen hotels, and the numbers are expected to grow as the strike wears on, union spokesperson Maria Hernandez said.

Among the hotels targeted the first day, she said, were the InterContinental, Hotel Indigo, Millennium Biltmore and JW Marriott LA Live in downtown Los Angeles, as well as the Fairmont Miramar in Santa Monica, the Sheraton Universal in Universal City and Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point.

The industry bargaining group said its hotels would remain open with management and non-union staff filling in for striking workers.

The union reached a contract deal on Friday with the largest of its employers, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown L.A., averting a strike against that property, Hernandez said.

She urged the industry's negotiating coalition, the Coordinated Bargaining Group, "to follow the lead of the Westin Bonaventure."

TWO SIDES FAR APART

The bargaining group was negotiating on behalf of 44 unionized hotels, with the remaining 21 expected to go along with whatever settlement is reached, according to the Los Angeles City News Service.

The union said its workers earn $20 to $25 an hour and is demanding an immediate increase of $5 an hour and an additional $3 an hour in subsequent years of the contract, plus improved healthcare and retirement benefits.

Both the union and management said the hotel group has countered by proposing wage hikes of $2.50 an hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years for most workers. Wages for housekeepers in Beverly Hills and downtown Los Angeles who currently earn $25 an hour would rise 10% next year and to more than $31 by 2027, under the industry's offer.

Unite Here also is seeking creation of a hospitality workforce housing fund, which according to management would be funded with a new 7% tax on guests staying at unionized hotels.

The union cites survey results showing 53% of hotel workers have either been forced to move in the past five years or will move in the near future due to soaring housing costs. Many workers report having to commute hours from areas where they live far outside the cities where they work, the union said.

Los Angeles has been a flashpoint for labor strife on several fronts this year, including the protracted writers strike and a three-day walkout in March by education support staff for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The union representing 22,000 dockworkers at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and other West Coast terminals reached a contract deal in June after 13 months of protracted labor talks, averting a strike that could have disrupted U.S. supply chains.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles and Gabriella Borter in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and Josie Kao)

Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California are on strike, demanding better pay and benefits


 

Striking hotel workers rally outside the Intercontinental Hotel after walking off their job early Sunday, July 2, 2023, in downtown Los Angeles.

 (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Sun, July 2, 2023 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of hotel workers in Southern California walked off the job on Sunday, demanding higher pay and better benefits in what the union is calling the largest strike in its history.

Cooks, room attendants, dishwashers, servers, bellmen and front desk agents at hotels were picketing outside major hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties just as the summer tourist is ramping up.

Last month, members of Unite Here Local 11 voted 96% in favor of authorizing the strike. The union is seeking better wages, improved health care benefits, higher pension contributions and less strenuous workloads.

In addition, the union wants to create a “hospitality workforce housing fund” to help workers deal with the soaring costs of living in greater Los Angeles. Many employees report commuting hours to work because they can't afford to live near their jobs.

“Our members were devastated first by the pandemic, and now by the greed of their bosses,” union co-president Kurt Petersen said in a statement. “The industry got bailouts while we got cuts.”

Contracts expired midnight on Friday at more than 60 hotels, including properties owned by major chains such as Marriott and Hilton. The strike affects about half of the 32,000 hospitality workers the union represents across Southern California and Arizona.

Last week, a deal was reached with its biggest employer, the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, which has more than 600 union workers. Union officials described the tentative agreement, which provides higher pay and increased staffing levels, as a major win for workers.

Talks with other hotels were at a stalemate. A coalition of more than 40 hotels involved in talks accused union leaders of canceling a scheduled bargaining session and refusing to come to the table. The hotels have offered wage increases of $2.50 per hour in the first 12 months and $6.25 over four years, the group said.

“From the outset, the Union has shown no desire to engage in productive, good faith negotiations with this group,” the hotel coalition said in a statement Sunday. “The Union has not budged from its opening demand two months ago of up to a 40% wage increase and an over 28% increase in benefit costs.”

The work stoppage was expected, and the properties are “fully prepared to continue to operate these hotels and to take care of our guests as long as this disruption lasts,” said Keith Grossman, a spokesperson for the coalition.

RPT-Climate nears point of no return as land, sea temperatures break records -experts

David Stanway

Sun, July 2, 2023 

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Temperature records topple around the world

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Sea temperatures also hit record high

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Climate talks failing to respond to extreme weather emergencies

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U.S. climate envoy Kerry expected in Beijing in July

SINGAPORE, June 30 (Reuters) - The target of keeping long-term global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea.

As envoys gathered in Bonn in early June to prepare for this year's annual climate talks in November, average global surface air temperatures were more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for several days, the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said.

Though mean temperatures had temporarily breached the 1.5C threshold before, this was the first time they had done so in the northern hemisphere summer that starts on June 1. Sea temperatures also broke April and May records.

"We've run out of time because change takes time," said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climatologist at Australia's University of New South Wales.

As climate envoys from the two biggest greenhouse gas emitters prepare to meet next month, temperatures broke June records in the Chinese capital Beijing, and extreme heatwaves have hit the United States.

Parts of North America were some 10C above the seasonal average this month, and smoke from forest fires blanketed Canada and the U.S. East Coast in hazardous haze, with carbon emissions estimated at a record 160 million metric tons.

In India, one of the most climate vulnerable regions, deaths were reported to have spiked as a result of sustained high temperatures, and extreme heat has been recorded in Spain, Iran and Vietnam, raising fears that last year's deadly summer could become routine.

Countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to try to keep long-term average temperature rises within 1.5C, but there is now a 66% likelihood the annual mean will cross the 1.5C threshold for at least one whole year between now and 2027, the World Meteorological Organization predicted in May.

'QUADRUPLE WHAMMY'

High land temperatures have been matched by those on the sea, with warming intensified by an El Nino event and other factors.

Global average sea surface temperatures hit 21C in late March and have remained at record levels for the time of year throughout April and May. Australia's weather agency warned that Pacific and Indian ocean sea temperatures could be 3C warmer than normal by October.

Global warming is the major factor, said Piers Forster, professor of climate physics at the University of Leeds, but El Nino, the decline in Saharan dust blowing over the ocean and the use of low-sulphur shipping fuels were also to blame.

"So in all, oceans are being hit by a quadruple whammy," he said. "It's a sign of things to come."

Thousands of dead fish have been washing up on Texan beaches and heat-induced algal blooms have also been blamed for killing sea lions and dolphins in California.

Warmer seas could also mean less wind and rain, creating a vicious circle that leads to even more heat, said Annalisa Bracco, a climatologist at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Though this year's high sea temperatures are caused by a "perfect combination" of circumstances, the ecological impact could endure, she said.

"The ocean is going to have a very slow response as it accumulates (heat) slowly but also keeps it for very long."

THE ROAD TO DUBAI

Climate experts say the extent and frequency of extreme weather is increasing, and this year has also seen punishing droughts across the world, as well as a rare and deadly cyclone in Africa.

The Worldwide Fund for Nature, however, warned of a "worrying lack of momentum" during climate talks in Bonn this month, with little progress made on key issues like fossil fuels and finance ahead of November's COP28 climate talks in Dubai. "It was very detached from what was going on outside of the building in Bonn - I was very disappointed by that," said Li Shuo, Greenpeace's senior climate adviser in Beijing.

"We are really getting to the moment of truth ... I am hoping that the sheer reality will help us change people's moves and change the politics."

Talks between the United States and China could resume next week with U.S. climate envoy John Kerry set to visit Beijing, though few expect it to add momentum to climate negotiations.

"This is more a trust-building exercise," Li said. "I don't think either side will be able to push the other side to say much more than they are willing to do - the politics won't allow that." (Reporting by David Stanway; Additional reporting by Ali Withers in Copenhagen and Gloria Dickie in London; Editing by Jamie Freed)

"A MINOR SPILL"

Cleanup begins after asphalt binder spill into Montana's Yellowstone River after train derailment

Montana Bridge CollapseSeveral train cars are immersed in the Yellowstone River after a bridge collapse near Columbus, Mont., on Saturday, June 24, 2023. The bridge collapsed overnight, causing a train that was traveling over it to plunge into the water below. Authorities on Sunday were testing the water quality along a stretch of the Yellowstone River where mangled cars carrying hazardous materials remained after crashing into the waterway. 

(AP Photo/Matthew Brown)

AMY BETH HANSON
Sun, July 2, 2023 

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Globs of asphalt binder that spilled into Montana's Yellowstone River during a bridge collapse and train derailment could be seen on islands and riverbanks downstream from Yellowstone National Park a week after the spill occurred, witnesses report.

Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency said cleanup efforts began on Sunday, with workers cooling the gooey material with river water, rolling it up and putting the globs into garbage bags. It will probably be recycled, said Paul Peronard with the EPA.

Alexis Bonogofsky, whose family's ranch was impacted by an oil spill on the Yellowstone River near Billings in 2011, took pictures Saturday of the refined petroleum product covering rocks and sandbars. She also snapped an image of a bird that had died in the black substance.

“This killdeer walked across the asphalt, which had heated up in the sun, and it got stuck and died with its head buried in the asphalt," Bonogofsky wrote in the caption of an image she posted on social media. "You could tell where it had tried to pull itself out.”

A bridge over the river collapsed as a train crossed it early on June 24 near the town of Columbus and 10 cars fell into the water, spilling liquid asphalt and molten sulfur, officials said. Both materials were expected to cool and harden when exposed to the cold water, and officials said there was no threat to the public or downstream water supplies, officials said.

However, the asphalt binder behaved differently.

“This stuff is not sinking in this water,” Peronard said Sunday. “It adheres really well to rock, and we can roll it up like taffy on the sand.”

Bonogofsky, in another of her photos, captured a sheen on the water. She said the spilled material heated up with warmer temperatures and “you can smell it.”

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality, the EPA and Montana Rail Link — the entities managing the cleanup — said more asphalt product was released Friday as a rail car was being removed from the river.

“Initial assessments indicate the release was minimal based on the amount of material believed to still be remaining in the impacted car,” the statement said.

Professor Kayhan Ostovar with the Yellowstone River Research Center at Rocky Mountain College also took pictures Friday of the petroleum product that had washed onto the riverbank about 6 miles (10 kilometers) downstream from the spill.

Ostevar's team has been conducting turtle surveys below the derailment and is sharing the GPS locations of sensitive sites that are near areas where the asphalt binder has come to rest.

Turtles are particularly vulnerable to this type of spill, Ostovar said, because they are leaving the water right now to seek out nesting sites on gravel bars and basking in the sun.

The center was created after the 2011 ExxonMobil pipeline breach to gather better baseline information on species of concern that live in and around the Yellowstone River.

Statements from the agencies and the railroad over the past week have asked people to report the sighting of asphalt materials on the riverbank via email to rpderailment@mtrail.com, and have listed a phone number — 888-275-6926 — for the Oiled Wildlife Care Network to report animals with oil on them.

No reports from the public had been received, Peronard said.

Bonogofsky argued it shouldn't have taken more than a week to develop a cleanup plan, especially since it’s known what materials the trains haul through Montana, as well as the damage the 2011 oil pipeline spill caused.

“We should have plans in place for this and we should have learned our lesson in 2011,” she said, arguing that work to clean up the asphalt binder could have happened at the same time they were removing rail cars from the water.

The last of the rail cars was expected to be removed from the water on Sunday, Peronard said, while agricultural users were notified that they could resume using river water for irrigation. Their irrigation canals had been shut down as a precaution.

Cleaning up spills of petroleum products is “somewhat of a losing game,” Peronard said. "We are never going to recover all of the oil here ... and there's likely to be impacts when we are done. That is unavoidable.”

As far as the cleanup delay, he said the response to any accident starts with protecting human lives, controlling the source of the spill and then protecting the environment. He said the agency also had to make sure its cleanup plan did not cause more harm than good for bird and turtle nests in the area.

Cleanup crews also have to stay at least a half mile away from eagles nesting in the area, Peronard said.

The spilled asphalt material is not water soluble, he said.

Ten years after Mégantic rail disaster, experts say stricter rules, tougher enforcement needed

The Canadian Press
Mon, July 3, 2023 



MONTREAL — Kathy Fox still remembers the looks on the faces of the grieving family members on the morning in August 2014, as she tried to explain how the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster had happened.

“You can imagine the grief, the shock, the anger, all the emotions,” Fox recalled.

“It was a hard day."

The Transportation Safety Board chair was in the school auditorium to deliver the agency's report on the tragedy — and the failures that allowed an unattended train carrying 72 tankers full of crude oil to careen off the rails at over 100 km/h, bursting into flames in the heart of the lakeside community on July 6, 2013.

Forty-seven people were killed in the inferno, creating the worst rail accident in modern Canadian history.

The fire, which burned for two days before finally being quelled by the efforts of some thousand firefighters, wiped out much of the centre of the 6,000-person town.

A slew of investigations, court cases, reports and regulatory changes followed over the succeeding decade.

The government banned one-person crews on trains hauling hazardous cargo and set new standards to make tank cars carrying flammable liquids sturdier. It also established stricter accident liability rules, imposed lower speed limits in rural and urban areas and gave Transport Canada stronger enforcement powers.

The department boosted the number of rail safety inspectors to 155 in 2022 from 107 in 2013, said Nadine Ramadan, the transport minister's spokeswoman, in an email. It has also quadrupled the tally of inspectors of dangerous goods to 188 from 30.

The safety record

Despite new penalties and tougher rules around safety management, experts say the current regime is far from sufficient to ensure railways steer clear of another catastrophe.

“Have they made the improvements necessary to prevent another Mégantic? My answer to that is no,” said Bruce Campbell, an adjunct professor in environmental studies at Toronto’s York University and author of “The Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied.”

Safety statistics don't paint an especially reassuring picture.

Incidents involving uncontrolled movement of rail equipment, which is what caused the crash in Lac-Mégantic, more than doubled to 78 between 2010 and 2019 before dropping off due to a pandemic-related dip in traffic, Fox said.

Collisions and derailments on main tracks — which the TSB notes can have the “highest severity” of all rail accidents — hit three accidents per million train-miles last year.

That's 25 per cent higher than the 10-year average, Fox said.

Meanwhile, the volume of dangerous goods on the tracks rose 70 per cent between 2011 and 2019, according to the government’s rail traffic database.

Bigger numbers mean greater risk, said Mark Fleming, CN professor of safety culture at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

He pointed to a 2020 audit by the federal environmental and sustainable development commissioner, which found that Transport Canada “still had shortcomings in its oversight of dangerous goods, despite having made some progress."

Self-regulation

Much of the ongoing concerns around danger on the tracks boils down to oversight, technical standards and the sheer size of trains and hazardous freight shipped.

After Lac-Mégantic, Transport Canada launched an overhaul of safety management systems — a form of self-regulation where the government audits reports submitted by railways. But nearly a decade later, companies “are not yet effectively identifying hazards and mitigating risks," the safety board determined last year.

“If you give the railways too free a hand, sometimes they make really poor decisions, and they're not penalized for it,” said Ian Naish, a rail safety consultant who served as the TSB's director of rail and pipeline investigations between 1998 and 2009.

“Not putting together a proper safety management plan, and getting away with it year after year, and not doing proper risk analyses when they're changing operations — I’d like that to change.”

The Railway Association of Canada said the two biggest operators — Canadian National Railway Co. and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., both of which are categorized as Class 1 due to their size — have the best safety records in North America.

"For every railway and every railroader, safety is job one. Canadian Class 1s are industry leaders in safety and have lower train accident frequencies than their U.S. counterparts,” CEO Marc Brazeau said in an emailed statement.

Brazeau said the accident rate for both freight rail and dangerous goods has improved markedly over the past decade.

Nonetheless, safety deficiencies played a role in the disaster near Field, B.C., in February 2019, the safety board found. At -28 C temperatures, compressed air leaked out of the air brake system while the train was parked on a steep grade, causing the Canadian Pacific cars to creep forward after midnight before hurtling down a mountain and careening off a bridge into the Kicking Horse River, killing three workers.

The government should require automatic parking brakes and further upgrades to braking systems, said Campbell, even after stricter rules around brake use came into force after 2013 for railways.

"They're still relying so heavily on 19th-century braking systems. Electro-pneumatic braking systems would impose a cost, but they would have prevented Lac-Mégantic,” Campbell said.

The slowest pace of change has arguably been around rail signalling — the trackside lights that authorize various train movements.

“If a crew member misses a signal, we still don’t have an automated train control system in Canada that will slow or stop a train if a crew doesn’t do it,” Fox said, noting the U.S. has had a form of it in place since 2020. Transport Canada has pledged to implement something similar by 2030.

Other factors

The growing length of trains, which can run well over four kilometres long with hundreds of cars weighing more than 25,000 tonnes in total, poses another concern.

Derailments involving longer, heavier trains mean a "worse pileup," said Naish.

Fatigue also remains an issue, even after new rules came into effect on May 25 that cap freight workers’ maximum shift length at 12 hours — down from 16 — while raising the minimum rest period between shifts to 10 hours at home and 12 hours when away from home, versus the previous six hours and eight hours, respectively.

But unheeded rules are of little use, Naish notes. On June 6, a Federal Court judge found CPKC guilty of contempt of court for employees working excessively long hours in 2018 and 2019. CPKC has vowed to appeal.

“Transport Canada, who’s the regulator, should use its teeth a little bit more than they do,” Naish said. “They're just a little bit too gentle with the railways.”

Risks, spills and other accidents remain alarmingly high, he continued.

On April 15, a Canadian Pacific freight train derailed due to a track washout in rural Maine. It spilled diesel fuel and four lumber cars caught fire, on the same line and about 90 kilometres east of where the Lac-Mégantic accident unfolded.

“You stand back and say, are things getting better?" Naish asked. "If they are, I haven’t noticed it.”

Fox, who stepped into the role of safety board chair in 2014 — two days after that briefing to hundreds of grievers, including some of the 27 orphaned children — keeps on her desk a constant reference to the need to keep improving safety.

It's a photograph of the streetscape of Lac-Mégantic from before the accident. In view are the Musi-Café — where 30 of the victims were killed when the fireball erupted at about 1:15 a.m. — and, in the distance, the local church.

“It is a daily reminder of what happened,” Fox said by phone from her office in Ottawa. “We don't ever, ever want to see another Lac-Mégantic.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 3, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CN, TSX:CP)

Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

Can COVID and wildfires spark a revolution in indoor air safety?

Mike Bebernes
·Senior Editor
June 14, 2023·


“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.

Photo illustration: Jack Forbes/Yahoo News; photos: Getty Images (4)

What’s happening

Gigantic plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires that blanketed the northeastern United States last week provided a striking reminder of the dangers that toxic air can pose — not just in the atmosphere, but also indoors. As New York City dealt with the worst air quality in the world, millions of people scrambled to eliminate the potentially dangerous particles that had seeped into their homes.

But experts say it shouldn’t take such an unprecedented event for indoor air quality to be a key focus of health efforts. Scientists have known for many years that clean indoor air can reduce heart and lung disease, improve cognitive performance in adults and children, and prevent a long list of deadly pathogens from spreading. The World Health Organization estimates that household air pollution is responsible for 3.2 million deaths per year globally. There’s even a phenomenon known as sick building syndrome that’s been documented to reduce productivity and increase absences in schools and workplaces.

Americans spend roughly 90% of their time inside, but neither the public nor government health authorities have given indoor air quality the kind of attention provided to clean water, food safety and outdoor air pollution. That has started to change since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which provided undeniable evidence of the life-and-death difference things like air circulation and purification can make.

Late last year, the Biden administration held a summit on indoor air quality, bringing together experts in health, ventilation, business and education to discuss ways to improve indoor air quality to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. Then in May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the first federal recommendations for how often air in a room should be circulated to stem the spread of disease — five times an hour.

Why there’s debate

Medical experts are hoping that the awareness created by the combined effects of the pandemic and increasingly frequent wildfires will help lead to an indoor air revolution in the same way diseases like cholera made clean drinking water an imperative for cities around the world nearly two centuries ago. As one epidemiologist elegantly put it: “Air is the new poop.”

But many clean air advocates say there is still a long way to go before there’s enough urgency to create the society-wide change they believe is necessary. They argue that only businesses and governments have the scope to effectively address a problem whose burden is usually placed on individual people.

At a small scale, improving indoor air can be as easy as opening a window. But the technologies needed to make a wider impact — including updated HVAC systems, air purifiers and disinfecting ultraviolet light — will be expensive to implement. A number of experts argue that the effort will ultimately save businesses and governments money by reducing health care spending and increasing productivity.

What’s next

Some scientists make the case for new laws to require better indoor air management. Others argue that the change will come only through a coordinated public pressure campaign that forces schools, businesses and lawmakers to make indoor air safety a core focus for public health.

With climate change leading to more wildfires and increased awareness of airborne viruses, the issue isn’t going away.

Perspectives

Plans need to be flexible to account for the needs of various climates

“One major challenge is reconciling a building’s energy efficiency and its indoor air quality. In places where outdoor air is very cold or very hot, pumping large amounts of it into indoor spaces could then require even more energy to heat or cool the building accordingly. … Different places also have drastically different built environments.” — Mary Hui, Quartz

Ventilation must be elevated to the same importance as plumbing

“A hundred years ago they developed codes and rules for water coming in and poop going out, and the plumber really did protect the health of the nation. Now it is time to rethink our HVAC systems and recognize their importance.” — Lloyd Alter, Treehugger

It’s a mistake to assume we can do for air what was done for water centuries ago

“Engineering solutions eliminated many waterborne pathogens from high income countries. It is not possible to achieve the same thing for airborne pathogens, due to the continuous processes of both ingestion and contamination. … Improving ventilation and air quality should be much higher up the priority list, and would help in reducing illness from airborne disease - but we must be realistic about what it can achieve. We cannot end the pandemic with improved ventilation.” — Alasdair Munro, infectious disease expert

A society-wide effort is needed to make such a massive change to how we live

“Ultimately, the issue is not only about particles and filters. It will be up to businesses, workers, students, parents, scientists and everyone else to demand change in the buildings in which they spend so much of their lives. Do you know the air exchanges per hour at your workplace or classroom? The CDC is now giving us a yardstick to measure by. Americans should use it.” — Editorial, Washington Post

We’ll need to prioritize energy efficiency when creating clean air systems

“Decarbonizing buildings affords an opportunity to rethink how indoor air quality can be managed and improved. Balancing the need to increase ventilation yet minimize energy loss through heating (in colder countries) or cooling (in hotter ones) is an important engineering challenge. Better insulation to reduce energy consumption needs to be set against adequate ventilation to avoid pollution collecting indoors.” — Alastair C. Lewis, Deborah Jenkins and Christopher J. M. Whitty, Nature

We must improve the air indoors and outside simultaneously

“There are two main ways to do to air what we did to water. One is to reduce concentrations of particulates and nitrogen dioxide by transitioning to using renewable energy quickly. The other is to improve the quality of indoor air by improving ventilation, both natural and mechanical.” — Geoff Hanmer, Conversation

It should be mandatory to inform the public about the air quality in crowded spaces

“The public should be notified of the air quality in buildings and public transit before entering, as well as of its potential health effects such as COVID risk. … Just as restaurants have health inspection reports with letter grades in their windows, shared indoor spaces should display their air quality ratings. These ratings can help people adjust their behavior appropriately.” — Abraar Karan, Devabhaktuni Srikrishna and Ranu Dhillon, Los Angeles Times

Citizens need to be empowered to ensure that the air they’re breathing indoors is safe

“People need a clear path for demanding better when buildings fail them. They deserve transparent standards for indoor air, with metrics they can easily understand and use to make their own decisions. And they require policymakers to provide enough support — and consequences — for building owners to ensure they meet those standards.” — Keren Landman, Vox

Every dollar spent improving indoor air quality will be more than recouped

“Healthy buildings are also associated with less worker absenteeism due to illness and better cognitive function, both of which mean that an investment in ventilation is an investment in a company’s bottom line.” — Joseph G. Allen, Stat

Opinion
Russia has permanently lost the Arctic to NATO


Tom Sharpe

THE TELEGRAPH
Mon, July 3, 2023

Russian missile battlecruiser Marshal Ustinov prepares to leave Severomorsk last year - Russian Defence Ministry/EPA/EFE/Shutterstock

Periodically the Arctic, the second most austere place on the planet, raises a gloved mitt for attention in the international debate. The impending addition of Sweden and Finland to Nato means that this is one of those moments.

Just four months after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, head of the UK armed forces, boldly stated that Russia has “strategically lost the war in Ukraine”. First among his reasons for this was the unifying effect the war was having on Nato.

Before the invasion, the alliance was wobbling. Its senior member, the US, was asking why it had to keep paying for it whilst European countries, having largely underpaid yet benefitted from its umbrella for so long, were throwing up EU-shaped alternatives. Bad ideas, but that was the European rhetoric and the US was understandably unimpressed.

Then Putin invaded Ukraine (again) and suddenly all eyes were back on the world’s strongest military alliance. It wasn’t long before the Arctic nations Sweden and Finland were asking to join.

Once they join, every Arctic country except Russia will be a member of Nato. That matters for the same two reasons every maritime trade area in the world matters – routes and resources.

As commercial shipping routes, the speed with which the Northeast Passage (Russia and Norway) and Northwest Passage (Canada and Alaska) will become viable remains uncertain. The latest Met Office figures show that the amount of sea ice now is less than the 1981 to 2010 mean (when some of the starkest ice-retreat predictions were emerging) but that for the last five years, the trend has reversed a little. In other words the Arctic ice is proving hard to predict. Should the passages open up and be available for use for two or three months a year by 2030, which many forecasters predict, then they will become subject to increased rates of commercial traffic with the insurance and operating issues that this raises. At this point, the disposition of the countries bordering these routes, and which treaties they are signed up to, matters.

It’s not just commercial shipping though. Russia has significant military resources in the Arctic, including its submarine-launched nuclear deterrent. The Northern Fleet, the core of the Russian navy, also has 16 nuclear-powered attack submarines that range from “old and noisy” to “new and extremely capable”. I went up against the latter in the days when I commanded a Royal Navy anti-submarine frigate and can testify to their capabilities.

Russia’s flotilla of specialised submarines, oceanographic research ships, undersea drones and autonomous vehicles, sensor systems, and other undersea systems – collectively known as Gugi, the so-called “Main Directorate of Deep Sea Research” – is growing in size, capability and audacity. Gugi is not a scientific organisation: it is actually one of the most secretive parts of the Russian armed forces. The Northern Fleet also has more than 30 surface vessels intended for Arctic use, including two nuclear-powered missile battlecruisers, the largest surface warships in the world. The Kalibr missile is ubiquitous, taunting the West with displays of what outstanding missile design and interoperability looks like.

Russian nuclear icebreaker "50 Years of Victory" visits the North Pole in 2021 - Ekaterina Anisimova/AFP

The Northern Fleet command also has powerful land forces: two arctic motor-rifle brigades, naval infantry, special forces and reconnaissance assets are all based in the north as are maritime patrol aircraft, the occasional bomber and in excess of 70 fast jets. In other words, the Russian north is home to an entire spectrum of conventional warfighting capabilities. A combination of sanctions, corruption, general neglect and loss of people and kit reallocated to Ukraine – reportedly most of the soldiers and marines have been sent south to the warzone – will have degraded much of Russia’s Arctic-facing capabilities, but, as ever, they cannot be written off.

When it comes to resources in the High North, there is plenty to contest. Oil and gas capture the headlines with potentially 20 per cent of the world’s undiscovered hydrocarbon reserves there, but there is also nickel, zinc, diamonds, rubies and methane hydrate deposits to exploit, not to mention fish and tourism.

And it’s not just natural resources that could be contested. The Nord Stream attack brought into stark relief how vulnerable undersea infrastructure is. The Norwegian continental shelf is covered in such pipelines and their infrastructure has been on the receiving end of all sorts of Russian “activities” in recent years, from fishing boats with no fishing gear to drone overflights to a visit by Russian Orthodox priests who showed an ungodly level of interest in the Severomorsk to Kirkenes water supply.

It doesn’t need to be conventional to pose a threat.

One of the problems with the Arctic over the years has been its governance. All regulatory bodies and treaties have either been without a legally binding mandate, not signed up to by all relevant countries or are of low international significance. The Arctic Council, established in September 1996 but without a firm legal charter perhaps illustrates this issue. In any case the Council is now suspended due to the invasion. The United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea and the International Maritime Organisation both have elements of regulatory authority but without universal signatories and so on.

The problem is that the Arctic is the embodiment of “out of sight, out of mind”. Flag-planting stunts, polar bear documentaries and apocalyptic ice predictions aside, most people just don’t care that much.

As ever, there is one country with the resources and clout to make a difference. In October 2022 the US issued a “National Strategy for the Arctic Region”, their first for many years. It focuses on security, climate change, sustainable economic development and international cooperation/governance. It’s fourteen pages long but Russia is mentioned twenty-one times.

Has the invasion forced the US to finally commit resources to the High North?

There are plenty of other countries that have a vested interest in ensuring Russian malfeasance is regulated in the Arctic. Canada, Denmark and Norway from the Arctic Five are the most obvious but also Iceland, Finland and Sweden as Arctic Council States with the last two now aspiring Nato members. The six permanent participants who represent the people who actually live there must feature in all conversations and by the time you get to the 38 countries who are Arctic Council Observers, there is a long list of countries who have opposed the invasion. Both the UN and the EU have a vested interest in stability there as well.

In other words, it’s not just Nato that Putin will have to stare down as and when he gets up to no good in the Arctic, it’s everyone.

What can the UK do in this environment?

The UK is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a state observer on the Arctic Council, a signatory to the Svalbard Treaty and a prominent member of the G8, G20, Commonwealth and Nato. It enjoys comprehensive membership of a range of lesser Arctic bodies such as the Arctic Military Environmental Cooperation Programme (AMEC); the Arctic Ocean Science Board (AOSB) and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and the well established Polar Regions Unit within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office allows the UK to address many of the Arctic issues with credibility. The Shetlands, the northern limit of UK territory, are not far from the Arctic Circle. We host the International Maritime Organisation and the UK is a major proponent of the need for maritime security. Britain has also been closely engaged with commercial operations in the Arctic since the days of whaling.

There is a role for the UK to shape sustainability in the region, as well as contributing to Arctic science through internationally respected organisations such as the British Antarctic Survey which despite its name, also has an Arctic mandate. The UK Hydrographic Office (UKHO) has a clear role to play by bringing its world-leading expertise in charting to bear.

Militarily the story is familiar to those who study UK Defence; we have some excellent equipment to use up there but not enough of it. Our attack submarines have been operating under the ice from their inception and our frigates were detecting and deterring Russian submarine activity in the vicinity of the critical trans-Atlantic cable infrastructure from the start of the Cold War. Currently, there is one of each assigned to this task, at best. Likewise, the new fleet auxiliary vessel Proteus was purchased recently to protect our undersea cables. She’s a great asset but there’s only one of her and her dance card will be full from the minute she deploys until the day she pays off. We need more.

In 2021, HMS Protector, our one and only ice patrol ship, set a northerly latitude record for an RN ship but her operating schedule in the Antarctic prohibits more regular work there. The RAF’s excellent new P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft is up and running but we only have nine. And so on.

In other words, the UK’s role in facing down Russia in the High North is much the same as it is everywhere; strong on soft power, diplomacy, science and technical expertise but with the bare minimum of military hardware to credibly back it up.

Does this matter? In the case of the Arctic, I don’t think it does. As the only major European power not meaningfully increasing defence expenditure just now the weak refrain “but that’s why we have allies” is, in this case, our only choice.

The good news is that with the US now looking north and major Arctic players about to join Nato, all Russia will find as it inevitably crosses acceptable international norms of behaviour is unified diplomatic and military opposition from everyone who lives and operates there.

Admiral Radakin was right - Russia’s reinvigoration of Nato is a strategic fail everywhere, including the High North.

Tom Sharpe is a former Royal Navy officer. He commanded an anti-submarine frigate on operations in the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap, involving live contact with Russian submarines

Climate action means 'reconnection,' say participants in Yukon First Nations fellowship

CBC
Mon, July 3, 2023 

Carissa Waugh and Nika Silverfox-Young were among the 13 young people participating in the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship. The group has a new website outlining a broad vision for rethinking and tackling the climate crisis. 'We want everybody to be a part of it,' said Waugh.

 (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC - image credit)

A group of young Indigenous people from the Yukon has created an interactive website they hope will encourage a radical rethink of the climate crisis and how to tackle it.

"It's not a website that you're just going to go through and quickly skim through," said Carissa Waugh, one of the creators. "There's recordings on there, there's stories on there, there's a lot of visuals on there."

The website was created by 13 young representatives from First Nations across Yukon and Northern B.C. who participated in the First Nations Climate Action Fellowship.

In February 2020, Yukon First Nations signed a climate change emergency declaration and called for an action plan to be led by youth, and for it to come from an Indigenous world view.

That led to the creation of the fellowship and now, after two years of work that involved healing, introspection, exploration of identity and culture — and how all of that intersects with climate action — the plan, in the form of the interactive website, is complete.

"We want everybody to be a part of it and with this website, you can be a part of what we've been doing," said Waugh.

Fellows with the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship picking berries.

Fellows Jared Dulac and Mats'äsäna Mą Primozic picking berries. (Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship)

Waugh and her peers are calling their work a "Reconnection Vision," and rather than a typical policy document, they say it's a guiding philosophy and toolkit that identifies disconnection as the root of the climate crisis, as well as the mental health crisis affecting many communities.

They say the work of "reconnecting" is climate action, that it's about healing and being in harmony with oneself, the community and the land.

Building on the historic 1973 Yukon land claims document Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow, the group is calling itself "the children of tomorrow" and says the Reconnection Vision can be a guiding philosophy for Yukon First Nations for the next 50 years.

"We really see this pathway where we can return to balance, return to harmony, return to circular thinking, to community," said Jocelyn Joe-Strack, Indigenous Knowledge Research Chair at Yukon University.

Jocelyn Joe-Strack is the Indigenous Knowledge Research Chair at Yukon University.

'It's challenging to heal in today's world and there are aspects of our society, our institutions that actively disconnect us,' said Jocelyn Joe-Strack, Indigenous Knowledge Research Chair at Yukon University. (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC)

She supported the group and watched the participants bond over the last two years. Joe-Strack says their work has taken a different approach and pushed back against dominant culture.

"In typical climate plans, you know, you see things around greenhouse gases and reducing emissions, but we really recognize the climate crisis and the mental health crisis ... the root cause of it being our state of disconnection," she said.

According to the Reconnection Vision, "the imbalance of the land reflects the imbalance within ourselves."

Joe-Strack says the time spent together creating the vision was sacred, and doing the work of reconnection is not always pretty.

Storytelling around the fire with participants in the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship.

Storytelling around the fire with participants in the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship. Their 'reconnection vision' says the work of reconnecting is climate action, that it's about healing and being in harmony with oneself, the community and the land. (Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship)

"There's a real intensity to it. It's challenging to heal in today's world and there are aspects of our society, our institutions that actively disconnect us and prevent us from being whole, from reconnection, from being in good relationship with each other," she said.

For organizations, governments and institutions wanting follow this vision, she says, there is work to do.

"Think about your role in perpetuating the barriers to reconnection and thinking about the state and the norm of disconnection in the work culture and in your community's culture, and what we can do to make space and just explore."

For fellow Nika Silverfox-Young, the process of coming together to create the plan has been an emotional journey and one that has allowed her to grow.

"I'm reconnecting to my language, to my home community, my lands," she said.

"It's just been unconditional love and support, I just want as many youth to feel what we feel."

Fellows with the Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship making drums.

The fellows make drums. (Yukon First Nations Climate Action Fellowship)

Both Silverfox-Young and Waugh say the connection and strength they've gained from being involved in the fellowship has been life-changing.

They hope as more people come to understand the vision, that support and connection will spread and lead to healthier individuals, communities, and land.

"Our youth are ready, they're ready for the change and we are ready to help them along that journey," says Waugh.

Silverfox-Young adds she thinks the vision will change a lot of perspectives and "hopefully garnish us a little army of reconnection soldiers."

"We are all going to be ancestors one day, leading our people through change, in a good way."