The World’s 10 Best Train Journeys

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2 comments

I love Canadian train trips :]

Great post!

Submitted by Seattle Dredge on Fri. 2011-02-25 7:02pm

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Regardless of your experience onboard, one should be aware of the fact that the company has locked out over 100 dedicated onboard attendants. RM has boasted that they are a 200 million dollar company but refuses to give it's employees a reasonable wage increase after 3 years at the same pay rate. They have never followed the federal labour code when it comes to overtime which has always been a sticking point during negotiations, yet the company hides behind that same labour code by using replacement workers (scabs), which is illegal in the province of British Columbia.
The use of scab labour undermines the right to fair bargaining by the employees. The company feels no pressure to negotiate and claims to be running the business as usual.
The over 100 locked out onboard attendants do not see this as business as usual, it is not usual to be standing on the other side of a fence watching someone else do their jobs. It is not usual to have overstaffed coaches to make up for the inexperience of the new workers. It is not usual to have "managers" staffing the coaches and serving the guests. And it certainly is not "business as usual" to have to cross a picket line at the beginning or end of a trip.
The company is doing their best to make the locked out employees look like the bad guys; they will say that they had no choice but to lock their employees out, however the negotiating team had asked for an extension to avoid giving strike notice, and in order for the staff to keep working while negotiating, and it was denied. Instead the company chose lock the staff out and to put into place an expensive contingency plan in an obvious effort to break the union. They have enlisted an abundance of security to constantly film and intimidate the peaceful picketers, have spent countless dollars trying serve court injunctions against employees that are only trying to get their jobs back. They've put tarpaulins along the fences so that the guests cant see the faces of the award winning staff that should be on that train.
These are not greedy people, these are people who love their jobs and have years of experience on the train. These are the real attendants whose faces can be seen in the literature on the train, advertisements and commercials. They are people with families, mortages and babies on the way. These are people that dedicate their lives to the company and work tremendously long hours to build a nest egg in order to make the money they earn stretch an entire year as they are not easily employable in the winter time.
This company should be ashamed of themselves!
I have taken the train and quite enjoyed myself, but part of what made the trip so exceptional was the amazing staff on board. Knowing the difference of how the service should be and what it is now, I would never take the train again, and I would certainly never ever cross a picket line either.
You can do your part by voicing your displeasure to the company, writing to the company, asking for a refund or to postpone your trip until the dispute is over and of course, not to tip the replacement workers as this only encourages them to maintain their positions and enable this dispute to drag on.
there is also a site that you can find by searching for rocky lockout . com

Submitted by Charles on Sun. 2011-07-17 4:07pm

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