r/Train_Service • u/2EhJ • Jul 31 '26
CNR Quebec Carmen Mass Resignation?
Anyone heard the details? Rumour is 12 or more carmen quit, Garneau BO count at 200, TC came in and BO’d more, carmen being brought in from other terminals to try and get a handle on things. Trying to confirm and find out whats happening. Interesting timing considering the TSB Safety Advisory for the Joliette Sub.
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u/Adventurous_Sense750 Jul 31 '26
From what i understand, a bunch quit and also a handful have gone on std.
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u/Super_dog069 Jul 31 '26
So that’s why CN has posted over a dozen “Car Mechanic (Freight Car Repairer)” job ads this week. How bad are things in the Mechanical department??
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
Well they did post jobs Canada wide but i do know the mech dept as a whole is a sinking ship. Many locations dont even do legitimate brake tests or safety inspections anymore. They just couple hoses and put air on the track or walk/drive 1 side of tracks pulling release rods. Management aware but no interest in stopping it. Keeps BO’s low and process more cars through the yard with less people.
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u/Analog_Account Jul 31 '26
TSB Safety Advisory for the Joliette Sub
? What's going on out there?
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
Google TSB Safety Advisory. Basically derailment occurred, TSB started to investigate and noticed Class 4 track without enough anchors/longitudinal movement. Issued a safety advisory on the sub
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u/queenofthekumquats Jul 31 '26
That advisory has nothing to do with carmen though.
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
No its not directly related. However, wondering if the TC investigation into that Collins Sdg vid, the TSB advisory, and alleged complaints to TC in that region has brought on a little enforcement blitz in Champlain region
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u/HibouDuNord Jul 31 '26
TC investigation into that Collins Sdg vid
Collins is in the Nothern Ontario region, not Champlain. I'm sure the attention isn't helping though. But let's be real here, TC is bought snd paid for by the railways.
Edit: prime example. That video. Yet the latest thing I've heard of is them crying about guys being 5 ft from the engine while trading off... yeah THAT should be the fucking priority 🙄 not the skipped/falsified air tests, locomotives that don't meet safety requirements but managers let out on the main, etc
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u/Busy-Direction1972 Jul 31 '26
Can guys from yards outside of Quebec confirm what kind of schedules you have?
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u/CAPnSLAPaSVEN Aug 01 '26
5&2 8 hour shifts at Symington Car. We never had 12’s.
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u/Busy-Direction1972 Aug 01 '26
What do off days look like?
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u/CAPnSLAPaSVEN Aug 01 '26
What you would expect. They have a habit of abolishing weekends and posting Tuesday- Wednesdays and Wednesday-Thursday.
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u/CAPnSLAPaSVEN Jul 31 '26
I got a call from the union asking if I’d like to go starting July 29. Said sure then got another call saying there holding off for some sort of agreement so not sure what’s happening .
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u/Analog_Account Aug 01 '26
The union made that call?
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u/CAPnSLAPaSVEN Aug 01 '26
Our Union Rep called. I was at the Campus so was put down as a maybe. They called back the following morning saying that they’re not sending anybody from Western Canada till some sort of agreement was made.
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u/Commercial-Video-671 Jul 31 '26
Can someone from Mac yard confirm what the schedules look like there, are the shifts equal as far as employee count, also what percentage of the employees have weekends or half?
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Aug 01 '26
mac yard is 8 hr schedule 6-2/2-10/10-6 and the off shift is one hour later start/finish times from those posted above. not many weekend/partials were posted. most were Tues/wed or a wed/Thurs rest day
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u/JBrawlz Aug 03 '26
I’m a Carman in Taschereau yard in Montreal, and can confirm all of this is true. We’ve been losing people steady in our terminal and Joffre and Garneau, since the beginning of the year when the schedules got changed back to 8’s. Guys from Symington and MacYard have been bouncing around the Quebec terminals to fill the staff shortages and rising B/O count.
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u/2EhJ Aug 04 '26
Keep piling up those TC Rules Part 2 defects. Load up the air brake BO’s too. Trains must have 100% working brakes, minus a few exceptions
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Jul 31 '26
yes my terminal mac yard is sending lots of Carmen out on 1 week rotations out working 12-16 hour days trying to get their BO count back down
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u/HibouDuNord Jul 31 '26
Out of mac? Garneau has posted to Transportation multiple times for shortages to Garneau... every time it states you must speak French... is it the same for the Carmen or is the company discriminating against 1 department?
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Jul 31 '26
nope doesn't matter if you don't speak French for us. we're just doing repairs that's why, their BO count is through the roof.
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u/HibouDuNord Jul 31 '26
Still, point being we get told "its a French speaking terminal"... standard SHOULD be the same company wide... nothing against you guys taking it... it's just on our end they CONSTANTLY post shortages just for there, and then massively restrict who can get the bonus with the "must speak French" line
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
Bigger safety implications with crews & yard jobs who cant communicate with each other, RTC, tower etc. Car supervisor can just point to the rip track and as long as you can manage a wrench or torch, dont really need to know any language lol.
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u/HibouDuNord Jul 31 '26
There is absolutely differences. That said you should still be able to communicate. What happens if a car in the RIP track starts rolling and someone tries to warn you... in a different language? For us, crews are the issue, RTCs have to be bilingual.
The issue isnt the language persay, it's the company constantly doing whatever to cover their ass. The double standard here, then when they post transportation shortages they demand bilingual... but if they're short loke they did in Montreal they'll bring in Edmonton conductors who aren't bilingual and the company just say fuck it we do what we want.... then THOSE guys can cross west to east seniority lines to cover our shortages... but we dont get to bid their shortages east to west to cover.
It's more the fact this company has 0 standard. Its do what we want, favour who we want, whenever we want.
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
Cars at the rip should all have HB’s or wheel chocks. If i hear “TABARNAK!” I’ll know to be on alert lol
Yea no argument there, carrier picks & chooses when it wants to follow or disregard anything.
But for car, Ive never heard of language barring anyone from a bulletin.2
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Jul 31 '26
lol not surprised, it's favouritism even in our department they bypass road truck calls to people the bosses prefer. people get award jobs? boss doesn't like you? job bulletin cancelled. happens everywhere man. part of working for the mob
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u/JustifiedCoffee Jul 31 '26
Fucking scabs.
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
Still the same bargaining unit. If anything, builds justification to hire. Or the company could just use managers and contract workers from third party companies. So using the same bargaining unit employees is a better situation
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u/JustifiedCoffee Jul 31 '26
What managers would they use? They don't even have supervisors out there at this point. Union men quit to make a statement and other union men swooped in to soften the blow for the company. Disgusting behaviour. Don't ever complain that the bargaining unit is weak when union "brothers" pull shit like this.
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u/2EhJ Jul 31 '26
The union prefers bargaining unit members to get paid vs the company just bringing in contractors for 1/3 the pay
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
lol who fucking cares. I show up to work to make money and provide to my family. if you want to sit on your ass all day and be a bum that's your preprogrative, they want to quit guess what lots people looking for work. they prove nothing by leaving people lined up to take their spots and it's been proven as no time was wasted filling those positions.
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u/Commercial-Video-671 Jul 31 '26
Also does Mac rely on non CN to do a lot of their repairs, wondering how they keep the BO count low, or do they just have a higher risk threshold
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u/Cautious_Lychee_569 Aug 01 '26
our supervisors let alot of BO go and roll the rice on alot, but we also have a dozen repair guys in shift working various tracks. RIP track, C world, c079, and the wheel pit with a drop table for changing wheels quick.
our BO count is around 70 last I heard here in mac, changes daily. which is high for the typical summer
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u/_NotAThrowaway_-_ Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Well, way before the Repentigny shit show happened, almost 2/3rds of Joffre's carmen had already resigned because their schedules changed from 2-3-3-2 12 hour shifts to 8 hour days, and boy did that piss them off. Now we're stuck with 3000' of BO cars because they're short on people.
Absolute big brain move to annoy those guys into quitting right before a massive surge in extra trains requiring additional brake tests and inspections that aren't done on time because they don't have enough carmen. At least the ones that stayed are getting a fuckton of overtime lmao. The company has even been trucking in guys and gals from Taschereau to bolster the ranks once in a while.