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1/4 Chicago [& S.F. & int'l.] Rally Safe Trains Now! Harding & LaBrie are Not Guilty
1/4 Chicago Rally Safe Trains Now! No More Lac Megantics! Harding & LaBrie are Not Guilty!
WW12-26-17 Campaign For Railroad Workers Facing Trial For Lac-Mégantic Wreck
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radi...megantic-wreck
Pacifica KPFA WorkWeek Radio looks at a railroad workers defense campaign taking place in Quebec , Canada. In 2014 a major train wreck took place in Lac-Mégantic when a run away train with loaded with highly dangerous fuel smashed into the Lac-Mégantic city center killing 47 people. The company Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) and the Canadian government blamed three workers for this catastrophic wreck.
USW Locomotive engineer Tom Harding is one of three former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railroad employees along with operations manager Jean Demaître and railway traffic controller Richard Labrie who were each charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death in connection with the deadly derailment and explosions at Lac-Mégantic.
With growing rail and transit disasters in Washinton, New York City and throughout the country are the workers really to blame? We look at the deregulation and the attack on rail workers and health and safety conditions by railroad bosses. On January 4th there will be protests at Canadian consulates in the US and around the world to demand freedom for these railroad workers.
WorkWeek is joined with Railroad Workers United RWU and Workers Solidarity Action Network WSAN member Mark Burrows who is a retired SMART 1433 Canadian Pacific railroader and is helping to organize the defense campaign. We also interview Fritz Elder who is a veteran Locomotive engineer, and chair of the Lac-Mégantic rail workers defense committee and a special rep for Railroad Workers United RWU.
For more information and media:
http://hardingdefense.org/
http://railroadworkersunited.org/lac-megantic/
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...om+Harding.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/m...ture-1.4423964
http://www.themilitant.com/2015/7905/790553.html
http://www.cbc.ca/…/lac-megantic-cri...l-begins-sher…
http://www.newswire.ca/…/steelworker...ves-70000-to-…
https://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=39797
http://hardingdefense.org
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases...515129641.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...ooke-1.4315201
http://jordanbarab.com/confinedspace...egantic-trial/
Production of
KPFA WorkWeek Radio
[email protected]
https://soundcloud.com/workweek-radio
1/4/18 International Day Of Action To Defend Framed Lac-Mégantic Railway Workers-Stop One Person Crews And Destruction Of Health & Safety Standards in Transportation System
1/4/18 Thursday Jan 4th, 2018
Press Conference and Rally in San Francisco on Thursday Jan 4, 2017 at 12:00 noon at the
San Francisco Canadian Consulate 580 California St. San Francisco, California
Additional information about actions in the US and internationally will be forthcoming.
On Thursday January 4, 2018 there will be an international day of action to defend three USW Canadian railway workers. Locomotive engineer Tom Harding is one of three former Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MMA) railroad employees along with operations manager Jean Demaître and railway traffic controller Richard Labrie who were each charged with 47 counts of criminal negligence causing death in connection with the deadly derailment and explosions at Lac-Mégantic that killed 47 people. As a direct results of the elimination of crews leading to a one person crew, this disaster was man made by the corporations which are eliminating railway safety protections and who control the politicians. The Canadian government in fact like the US government is controlled by these same rail bosses who are only interested in more profits at the cost of lives, communities and the environment.
Increasing rail wrecks and explosions throughout North American are endangering workers, members of the community and creating havoc. These so called “accidents” around the world are a direct result of deregulation, privatization and the attack on transportation workers and their unions.
Not surprisingly, no charges were brought against MMA owner Ed Burkhardt or against the federal Conservative government that allowed the use of single-worker train crews without an inquiry into the implications of its decisions.
The scheme to blame the workers for these disasters is a cynical ploy to shift the real responsibility for the growing number of transportation catastrophes taking place in North America and in country after country.
We call for the dropping of charges and for the real criminals who are the executives of MMA and the government officials to be prosecuted for endangering the community and the workers.
Put the real criminals on trial!
In San Francisco there will be a press conference and protest at the Canadian Consulate at 12:00 noon. The consulate is located at 580 California St. San Francisco.
This international day of action has been endorsed by
Workers Solidarity Action Network
https://www.facebook.com/workerssoli...actionnetwork/
http://www.workerssolidarityactionnetwork.org
Railroad Workers United
http://railroadworkersunited.org
United Public Workers For Action
www.upwa.info
Additional media:
http://railroadworkersunited.org/lac-megantic/
https://static1.squarespace.com/stat...om+Harding.pdf
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/m...ture-1.4423964
http://www.themilitant.com/2015/7905/790553.html
http://www.cbc.ca/…/lac-megantic-cri...l-begins-sher…
http://www.newswire.ca/…/steelworker...ves-70000-to-…
https://www.ble-t.org/pr/news/headline.asp?id=39797
http://hardingdefense.org
http://www.newswire.ca/news-releases...515129641.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...ooke-1.4315201
http://jordanbarab.com/confinedspace...egantic-trial/
thanks god .that 's good news
Canadian USW Rail Workers Harding & Labrie Are Not Guilty! Drop The Charges NOW!
Video from San Francisco:
Canadian USW Rail Workers Harding & Labrie Are Not Guilty! Drop The Charges NOW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFaw...ature=youtu.be
+ YouTube Video
A solidarity rally was held at the San Francisco Canadian Consulate on January 4, 2018 to demand that charges be dropped against MMA USW union railroad workers Tom Harding and Richard Labrie for the deaths of 47 people in the Lac-Mégantic train wreck. The highly flammable cargo on the train cars was only manned by one worker and the evidence at the trial has shown that there were not proper safety measures in place. The company and the Canadian government according to speakers is now scapegoating the workers. The Canadian government like the US government has pushed deregulation and 1 person crews are being implemented by the rail owners and the speakers charged this was the real reason for this and other rail disasters in Canada and the US.
The speakers also discussed the growing rail wrecks and dangerous transportation system in the United States and this was connected to similar efforts to downsize the staffing of the trains and deregulation. Speakers included trade unionists from SMART Local 1741 SF Bus Drivers, SEIU 1021 Social And Economic Justice Committee and members of Railroad Workers United RWU and Workers Solidarity Action Network WSAN. Environmental activists also attended and spoke.
There were also support actions in Chicago, Seattle, DC and in Sao Paulo, Brazil at Canadian consulates and embassies.
For further information on the case:
Harding Defense Committee
http://hardingdefense.org
RWU Statement Upon the Acquittal of Canadian Railroad Workers
RWU Statement Upon the Acquittal of Canadian Railroad Workers
Press Release
Friday, January 19th, 2019 at 2:40 PM Central Time
For Immediate Release
For more information Contact: Ron Kaminkow, RWU General Secretary
phone:608-358-5771 or 202-798-3327
email: [email protected]
RWU Statement Upon the Acquittal of Canadian Railroad Workers
Railroad workers – together with all citizens concerned with worker justice - across the continent are celebrating the acquittal of Canadian railroaders who were wrongly accused by the Crown for the tragedy at Lac-Mégantic in which 47 people were killed when a long and heavy oil train crashed and exploded in the middle of that small town in July of 2013.
At the time of the wreck, Railroad Workers United (RWU) had spoken out quickly, releasing a statement within a week condemning the reckless practices on the rail carrier – the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic (MM&A) - and its renegade CEO Ed Burkhart. Since then, RWU has defended the railroad workers, denying that they in any way should be charged with a criminal offense, demanding that the charges be dropped, and that the Crown charge the real criminals – the MM&A bosses and the government regulators who had turned a blind eye to their irresponsible actions regarding safety.
Once the workers were arrested, RWU took part in protest actions, assisted with organizing a defense committee, began raising funds for the defense, and attempted to raise awareness of the issue on both sides of the border. Despite the overwhelming evidence of company recklessness and irresponsibility, the Crown refused to drop the charges, and proceeded onward to the trial which finally commenced – more than four years after the event – in September 2017.
While the prosecution focused largely on a single event – the alleged failure of the locomotive engineer to tie enough handbrakes, they were tripped up at every turn by their own witnesses – government, company, “expert” and otherwise – who, by their testimony, incriminated the company and the government regulators rather than the defendants.
Some of the highlights that were revealed at the trial include:
1 – The implementation of single employee train crews just months earlier, had played a key role in the wreck. One other railroad that had been operating trains in this fashion for years (QNSL) had provided 10 days of training and made 69 safety accommodations prior to the implementation of such operations. The MM&A did none of these, while the government stood idly by. After the wreck however, Transport Canada outlawed the further implementation of the practice.
2 – The MM&A had allocated practically no funding for safety or emergency training, nor standardization of rules compliance, and had a terrible safety record compared to most rail carriers.
3 – The train in question was thousands of tons over limit. Significantly, the company had no set policy for the number of handbrakes that were necessary to secure such trains. That number remains in question, but experts now agree that the number for such a train on such a grade is well more than had been considered at the time.
4 – The train – by company policy - was left unattended on the mainline on a steep grade with no derail or other means of protection against runaway.
5 – The train’s lead locomotive was defective, and ultimately this fact would catalyze the runaway. Despite awareness of this fact, the company had failed to make necessary repairs to it, nor utilize it as a trailing unit in the consist. In addition, the mainline trackage was in a dilapidated state because of deferred maintenance by the carrier.
6 – Company policy was to leave the train’s automatic brake in the release position, even though the generally accepted practice by railroad policy and law is to leave unattended trains with the automatic brake in the “full-service” (fully applied) position. Every car of the train could have had its air brakes fully applied, but the company – against general rule and wisdom of a hundred years - insisted that engineers not set the air brakes on the train when leaving the train alone. Had this reckless and bizarre policy not been insisted upon by MM&A, the train almost certainly could not have rolled away.
All told over the course of four months, the jury gained a picture of a railroad company that was oblivious to safety concerns, one far more interested in making money than in the safety of its workers or trackside communities. While RWU applauds the jury’s verdict and sees the acquittal as a victory – not just for the MM&A railroad workers but for all railroad workers – we must remain vigilant. Railroad carriers in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere are intent on criminalizing employees, pointing the finger at them when something goes wrong, as a means of deflecting attention away from their own failures, whether it be inadequate training, lack of qualifying time, chronic crew fatigue, deferred maintenance, dangerously long and heavy trains, inadequate staffing and more. Railroad workers must be ready, willing and able to come to one another’s defense to prevent the rail carriers and the state from criminalizing our behavior while they – the real criminals – get off Scott free.
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Railroad Workers United
Solidarity -- Unity -- Democracy
RWU Response to Verdict in Lac-Mégantic Trial.pdf
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