Mandryk: Moe, others right to apply pressure to end rail disruption

One gets why it might be hard to trust a Saskatchewan premier who has cried wolf over virtually everything the federal government does.

One further gets why many might automatically assume Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party government were again eagerly playing wedge politics in another labour dispute.

Hardly a day went by during the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation dispute when Moe or Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill didn’t sneer at the teachers’ union and the union bosses.

Article content

But we need to take a serious look at what was behind Moe’s call for federal government intervention in the context of why it was so critical to settle this potentially catastrophic railway lockout immediately.

That federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon seemed to agree with Moe, announcing plans to use Section 107 of the federal labour code to intervene, says much.

The trains stopped. It was going to cost the Canadian economy a billion dollars a day — a disproportionate amount taken out of the hide of this landlocked province.

It appears the premier responded to the gravity of the situation in a reasoned way.

Moe and others did what a responsible political leader should be doing. It’s not the politicians who need to put the politics aside.

Given Moe’s track record, one gets why that may be difficult.

Moe’s recent call for a government-driven arbitrated settlement is precisely what his government wouldn’t do when the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) asked for binding arbitration.

During the last rail labour dispute in March 2022, Moe demanded rail workers be considered an essential service without the right to strike. That’s not even afforded to municipal police officers in this province — largely because there’s consequences when rights, like the right to strike, are taken away.

Article content

Article content

In the past, Moe demonstrated little understanding of this … or seemed politically selective in his interpretation of who is afforded human rights.

At the same time two years ago that Moe was are arguing rail workers’ unions didn’t have right to break the supply chain, he simultaneously supported the rights of anti-vaccine goons illegally stopping the flow of commodities at international border crossings.

He even condemned Ottawa’s use of the Emergencies Act as an intervention. A year later, he would use the notwithstanding clause to override Charter rights on the pronoun bill.

One gets why some were saying, “Here he goes again.”

Unfortunately, that was the cheap and easy political response — the very thing many criticize Moe for always using. Worse, it ignored the gravity of this current labour dispute.

One simply cannot downplay or ignore the significance of 9,300 engineers, conductors and yard workers with the Canadian National Railway Co. (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd. (CPKC) being locked out for an extended period.

Like most labour disputes, one can surely blame both management and unions, both of whom accuse the other of caring nothing for the customers affected. No doubt management has legitimate issues related to costs and the union has legitimate issues regarding safety.

Article content

But simultaneously shutting down both national railways — again, a billion dollars a day — is anything but a typical labour dispute. The economy cannot endure a shutdown of this vital service for more than a couple of days.

It is important to assess each individual case. This situation is clearly grave.

Politicians applying pressure to stakeholders or demanding a solution — up to and including federal government intervention — is hardy unreasonable in this case.

To his credit, Moe toned down his political rhetoric. He contributed to a coalition of groups applying much-needed pressure on the railways, union and federal government to come up with a solution.

It’s been needed under these circumstances.

Similarly, we see NDP leader Carla Beck setting aside politics and speaking to both agricultural producers and teamsters on Thursday.

Our politicians took the right approach. Let’s hope it leads to a lasting resolution.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

Our websites are your destination for up-to-the-minute Saskatchewan news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and leaderpost.com. For Regina Leader-Post newsletters click here; for Saskatoon StarPhoenix newsletters click here

Article content