It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
CN Strike No Hinderance To Honorary Degree
CN strike resumes Despite CN workers rejecting CN's earlier contract offer in an overwhelming vote, CN CEO E. Hunter Harrison will still receive his honorary degree from the University of Alberta for Leadership in Business. LOL.
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CN
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Thursday, April 05, 2007
Criminal Capitalist Gets Honorary Degree
The U of A does it again. Celebrating criminal capitalism by giving an honorary degree to E. Hunter Harrison of CN. Heck he is the perfect model for a MBA think of all his successes; the accidents, environmental damage, job losses, and forcing workers to strike. If he is one of the top executives in his field then perhaps they should consider Conrad Black for an honorary degree next year.
SeeIn making its choices, the university made sure to pick a diverse group of leaders from the fields of art, science, business, and community involvement, U of A chancellor Eric Newell said.
Among the selections, the choice of Harrison has the potential to cause some controversy since it was one of his company’s trains that derailed and spilled oil into Wabamun Lake in 2005.
CN was criticized for its handling of the incident in the early days following the spill.
But Newell said Harrison is a worthy choice to speak to business graduates because he is widely recognized as one of the top executives in his field, and CN’s operational headquarters are based in Edmonton.
CN
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Friday, February 23, 2007
CN not hurting
CN awaits the State to legislate UTU workers back to work. They have made no effort to deliver just in time.
Rather they would sacrifice Canadians needs on the backs of their workers. It is after all a sure fire way of increasing your stock price. And your salary.
Ironically 'precision railroad' sounds a lot like precision model trains, and that is how Hunter Harrison has been running CN. Like his own toy railroad in his rec room. Or should that be wreck room?
The bottom line: Did CN push too hard?
In his four years at the throttle, Hunter Harrison has revolutionized how CN Rail does business, driving productivity, boosting the stock price by 150 per cent and making $56-million in 2005 for himself in his pursuit of a "precision railroad."
Five day stock price during strike
CNR (Canadian National Railway Company ) Last: $54.45 Change: +0.51 (+0.95%) Revenue (ttm): $7,716.0M EPS: 3.91 Market Cap: $27,493.13M Time: 4:23pm ET
The strike is unlikely to have much of an impact on Canada's economy if it's settled within a month, Robert Hogue, a Bank of Montreal economist, said today in a report. ``While the current impact on business and many remote communities can be heavy, much of the broader economic toll, if any, will only surface if the strike carries on significantly longer,'' Hogue said.
The government is using the pretext of inconvenience to bring in Back To Work Legislation today. But inconvenience by whom?
Blaming the workers instead of CN which refuses to bargain. Notice the State always brings in " back to work" legislation, never back to bargaining legislation. And notice who is returning to work for the good of the country.
SeeLee Rawsthorne of the United Transportation Union local in Winnipeg said the returnees include about 150 workers in Winnipeg, roughly 30 in Dauphin and about six in Brandon.
Workers in Melville, Sask., are also reported to have laid down their picket signs.
Rawsthorne said the national union may not approve of the return to the job, but he said workers felt it was the right thing to do.
"It was never our intention to damage our country," he told CBC News. "It was to try to negotiate a deal.
CN
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Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Could CN Bring Down Harper?
Back to work legislation is what CN was hoping for, thus they have refused to bargain. Which is why the Government stepped away from the strike hoping it would go away. It didn't and now they are over ruling their own Labour Board and trying to bring in back to work legislation. When it comes to CN they may be privatized but the State still gives them preferential treatment they got when they were a Crown Corporation.
Now if the Canadian UTU were really militant it would refuse to go back to work. Even if legislated back. Which CUPW did many years ago even though the Government jailed its leadership. Making them Labour Martyrs for years after.
As it is even an attempt to pass the legislation tonight in the House could be defeated. Which is what UTU is hoping for.....high hopes...like that ant and the rubber tree plant.
Ironically the last time CN workers were legislated back to work was when the company was still a Crown Corporation.
Government readies back-to-work order as CN strikers reject voluntary return
The Canada Industrial Relations Board refused to rule the wages-based strike illegal Monday after Blackburn said he wanted the dispute "ended in hours, not days."
The union had said it would send its members back if CN's request for a back-to-work order were approved by the board.
Asked how the union would respond to a legislated order, Wilner said: "Well, they have to get it passed first. Our understanding is that they don't have the votes and they could wind up having to call new elections if they fail."
There is plenty of precedent for federal back-to-work legislation, particularly in the railway sector. Such laws have been enacted 31 times since 1950, including six times in the rail industry, most recently in 1995.See
Scab Trains Go Off The Tracks
CN Whines
CN Wildcat
American Union Bosses
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Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Scab Trains Go Off The Tracks
Management can't run CN trains safely during the best of times, why would it be any different as they get scabs to run the trains during the current strike by UTU.
Well in this case the management and scabs managed to have two accidents in one day. That's a record even for CN.
Two CN trains derailed in separate incidents Tuesday in British Columbia and Alberta while being operated by management during a railway strike.
In Prince George, B.C., the wheels on the locomotive came off the rails along tracks between a pulp mill and a refinery, said a CN spokesman.
He also said the role played by replacement workers and managers will be part of the investigation.
union representatives say it shows the dangers of supervisors running trains when they have little experience.
Which reminded me of this song by Joe Hill, changed to reflect the guilty.
The Workers on the CN line to strike sent out a call;
But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn't strike at all;
His boiler it was leaking, and its drivers on the bum,
And his engine and its bearings, they were all out of plumb.
Casey Jones kept his junk pile running;The workers said to Casey: "Won't you help us win this strike?"
Casey Jones was working double time;
Casey Jones got a wooden medal,
For being good and faithful on the CN line.
But Casey said: "Let me alone, you'd better take a hike."
Then some one put a bunch of railroad ties across the track,
And Casey hit the river bottom with an awful crack.
Casey Jones hit the river bottom;When Casey Jones got up to heaven, to the Pearly Gate,
Casey Jones broke his blessed spine;
Casey Jones was an Angelino,
He took a trip to heaven on the CN line.
He said: "I'm Casey Jones, the guy that pulled the CN freight."
"You're just the man," said Peter, "our musicians went on strike;
You can get a job a'scabbing any time you like."
Casey Jones got up to heaven;They got together, and they said it wasn't fair,
Casey Jones was doing mighty fine;
Casey Jones went scabbing on the angels,
Just like he did to workers of the S. P. line.
For Casey Jones to go around a'scabbing everywhere.
The Angels' Union No. 23, they sure were there,
And they promptly fired Casey down the Golden Stairs.
Casey Jones went to Hell a'flying;
"Casey Jones," the Devil said, "Oh fine:
Casey Jones, get busy shovelling sulphur;
That's what you get for scabbing on the CN Line."
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Monday, February 12, 2007
CN Whines
CN says striking conductors' wage demands too high
Oh really. I think not. Not after record profits and cost cutting that has reduced jobs and has resulted in numerous accidents that endanger their workers, the public and the environment.
UTU asked for wage increases of 4.5 percent in the first two years of a three-year contract and 4 percent in the third, CN said. "The UTU's final offer on lump sum bonus payments - C$1,000 ($840) per year over the three-year period - was three times greater than the other recent agreements," CN said.
Ah. cry me a river.
CN is demanding a flat wage rate. Where it has won those concessions in the U.S. the rail workers are now doing twelve hour shifts. Gone is the eight hour day.
Report on Business Top 1000 listed the productivity of CN workers,
RANK | COMPANY (Year-End) | EMPLOYEES | HEAD OFFICE | REVENUE/ EMPLOYEE | PROFIT/ EMPLOYEE |
---|
34. Canadian National Railway (De05) | 21,540 | Montreal,QC | $336,676 | $74,420 |
So each worker at CN produced a gross revenue of over three hundred thousand dollars for the company and made CN a profit of $74,000 each, thats after their wages, benefits, company taxes etc. had been paid out.
After all labour produces all wealth, all wealth belongs to labour.
Here is CN's ten year stock chart.
Not exactly boom and bust, just one long boom.
Paid for by CN workers and CN's disregard for public safety.
And while CN whines about paying out $1000 signing bonus spread over three years, thats a big $333 a year, to their workers, here is what Hunter Harrison earned in 2005.
He is the second highest paid CEO in Canada.
Canadian National Railway Co. | Harrison, Hunter | $56,219,496 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
That means Hunter earns a cool $29,281 a day!!! While begrudging CN workers a measly 4% wage increase and a pitiful signing bonus over three years. Yet each worker produces a profit of $74,000 each, which goes to Hunter and his Shareholders.
Ain't capitalism grand.
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Time to Nationalize CN
CEO'sCN
Productivity
Wealth
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Saturday, February 10, 2007
CN Wildcat
Canadian workers did not wait for permission from their Yankee Union Bosses to go on strike. And of course it began in Montreal, since Quebec workers have a long history of labour militancy.
- Canadian National Railway Co. said on Saturday that 2,800 of its conductors and yard-service workers at its operations in Canada began a strike, a work stoppage that could affect the country's key shipments of grain, timber and other commodities.CN, Canada's largest railway, said it was putting management personnel on trains and in switching yards to continue freight operations across Canada because of the strike by members of the United Transportation Union (UTU).
CN said the strike is restricted to Canada and its other unionized employees remain at work.
CN said it was ready to negotiate with the UTU at any time, but the company was seeking to have the strike declared illegal because CN said it had been informed that the certified bargaining agent of the UTU members employed at the rail company had not authorized the walkout.
CN says that the proper union representatives did not authorize the strike action and will file a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
The union admits that while its international president has not provided authorization, it does not affect the legality of the strike.
Rex Beatty, a representative for the UTU said in a statement that the union was “disappointed that it could not reach a negotiated settlement.”
The union submitted an offer to CN that included 3 percent wage increases, paid every Jan. 1 between 2007 and 2009 and also sought a $1,000 bonus paid to employees March 1.
Unions
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Friday, February 09, 2007
American Union Bosses
Here is an perfect example of why we need autonomous democratic Canadian unions.
Conductors at Canadian National Railway Co., the country's largest railroad, won't strike immediately after a midnight deadline even if labor talks today don't produce an agreement, a union official said. The United Transportation Union chapter, which represents Canadian National's 2,800 conductors and yard workers, needs to apply for strike authority from its Cleveland-based headquarters, Frank Wilner, a union spokesman, said in an interview today.
It's not the workers who decide to strike but the 'union bosses' ,as the Sun newspapers call 'em , in the U.S. This is the real meaning of International Unions operating in Canada, they are American business unions run by union bosses rather than by the members.
CN workers are represented by three different unions, which just goes to show that they need One Big Union of all the workers, run by the workers.
And here is another reason for Federal Anti-Scab legislation.
The company has said it will continue its freight operations across Canada during a strike, with management personnel performing the UTU-represented conductor and yard-service jobs.
This is just another CN disaster in the making, refusing to negotiate while raking in record profits and subjecting its workers to speed ups and accidents.
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