I heard an interesting explanation as to why we got where we are with the rail strikes. Decades ago the O&G industry lobbied to have limits on continuous working days changed. It made sense, because when you go away to a work camp, 2 weeks on/1 week off saved a lot of time lost to travel. So then the transport industry decided they wanted looser rules, too. If it's good enough for work camps, why not drivers/train engineers? It didn't help the safety argument that doctors are worked ragged by government as well. The door is open now.
This inevitably led to where we are today, with companies squeezing every minute out of them, as businesses are known to do. A bus or truck or train driver may have a legally required 8 hour break, but that's between shifts. They still have to get home, eat, shower, prep for the next shift etc. How many hours sleep is that? Not enough. Train drivers may use all their hours up in Vancouver, but they live in Calgary.
So when you hear the union complaining about scheduling issues, it's this kind of thing. Can you blame them? Not only are these safety issues, they also eat into time off. So to lose the right to strike to have these issues improved, well, it all seems a bit too far on the business friendly side of it. Government allowed this to happen, and now they are forcefully standing behind it. I think what really needs to happen is the government must put in safer limits on transport hours. But that means more cost increases, so I can see why they are shy on it.
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