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The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 37 October 19, 2015
(front page)
Lac-Mégantic rail safety fight is
‘needed now more than ever’
BY JOHN STEELE
MONTREAL — “The Oct. 11 march for rail safety will be successful and
it’s needed more than ever,” André Lachapelle, an activist in the
Sécu-Rail Committee in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, told the Militant in a
phone interview Oct. 5.
Sécu-Rail is part of the Citizens’ Coalition and Groups Committed to
Rail Safety that’s organizing the march demanding the Lac-Mégantic City
Council seek a court injunction to bar the Central Maine and Quebec
Railway from transporting dangerous goods through the town until it
repairs its unsafe tracks. Sécu-Rail activists have provided
photographic documentation of the dangerous conditions on the tracks.
In 2013 Lac-Mégantic was the scene of a catastrophic Montreal, Maine and
Atlantic oil train derailment, explosion and fire that killed 47 people
and wiped out the downtown. Federal prosecutors have tried to pin the
blame on Tom Harding, the locomotive engineer and only “crew” on the
train, and train controller Richard Labrie. Both workers, who are
members of Local 1976 of the United Steelworkers union, face possible
life in prison on 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death, as
does former company official Jean Demaître.
The government and rail bosses claim Harding didn’t set enough
handbrakes. But, as was company policy, he left the engine running and
the air brakes engaged. Because of poor company maintenance a fire broke
out on the engine. The fire crew and a Montreal, Maine and Atlantic
representative, who was sent to the scene, then shut the engine down.
When Harding was called by the railroad and told of the fire, he
volunteered to return to the train, but was told he shouldn’t worry
about it, they had someone else there. Later, when the air brakes bled
out, the train rolled into Lac-Mégantic and derailed.
“It was not the fault of the workers,” said Lachapelle. “It was the
fault of the government and the company. In fact, the federal government
was most responsible. It let the MMA run its trains with a crew of one
on unsafe tracks.”
A year before the disaster, Transport Canada approved the request of
Montreal, Maine and Atlantic bosses to slash train crews to one person
as a cost-cutting measure to boost profits.
“The companies and the government overlook safety for profits,” a
Canadian Pacific Railway locomotive engineer and officer of the
Teamsters Rail Conference who declined to use his name told the Militant
Oct. 1. “I know what it’s like. I could have been in the same situation
as Tom Harding. We need to put up a fight against the rail companies and
the government for safety.”
The Citizens’ Coalition is now locked in a fight not only with Transport
Canada and the Central Maine and Quebec Railway, but also with
Lac-Mégantic Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche and the City Council, who have
buckled to pressure from local businesses, like the giant Tafisa Canada
Inc. particle board plant in town, Lachapelle said. The railway is vital
for forest industry bosses in Quebec and Maine.
Central Maine and Quebec, which is run by a U.S. hedge fund that bought
out bankrupt Montreal, Maine and Atlantic, may start running oil trains
through the town again as early as January. Oil trains were the most
profitable cargo the railway carried, subsidizing its lumber and other
traffic.
On Sept. 26 the convention of the Union of Quebec Municipalities,
representing 300 Quebec towns and cities, endorsed a resolution
submitted by the City Council in Nantes placing blame for the disaster
on the government and railway bosses. The town is located seven miles
uphill from Lac-Mégantic where the train was parked before it rolled and
exploded.
“Mayor Roy-Laroche, who is not running in the next municipal election
and was attending her final council meeting, rejected all the demands of
the coalition before a large audience of her supporters,” Lachapelle
said. “She said she had seen a confidential letter from Transport Canada
to CMQR President John Giles declaring the tracks safe and argued it was
an ‘economic imperative’ to reject the demands of the Citizens’
Coalition for the immediate repair of the tracks and for independent
studies of their condition and weight-bearing capacity. She argued that
there is no emergency and that instead the city should concentrate on a
longer-range effort to get the federal government to build a rail bypass
around Lac-Mégantic.”
Broad support for the fight
Word has been getting out about the Oct. 11 demonstration and the fight
against the frame-up of Harding and Labrie. On Oct. 2 the Montreal daily
La Presse published a three-quarter page article pointing to the
responsibility of Ottawa in the disaster, the issue of the one “crew”
member, the Oct. 11 demonstration and how the situation in Lac-Mégantic
has become an issue in the Oct. 19 federal election campaign.
Join the Oct. 11 demonstration at the Lac-Mégantic Sports Centre at
12:30 p.m. Afterwards, protesters plan to participate in an
all-candidates federal election meeting at the Sports Centre to continue
to press their demands.
Related articles:
Fiat Chrysler workers vote down contract to protest two-tier wages
‘As long as ATI doesn’t budge, we’ll be out here’
On the Picket Line
Fast-food workers lead fight for $15 in Chicago suburbs
Fight frame-up of Quebec rail workers!
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