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Keith Creel is president and CEO of Calgary-based railway company Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.

Railways. Airlines. Ports. Seaways. All have experienced significant labour disruption in the past 18 months. Canada has experienced 62 work stoppages in the transportation sector alone in 2023 and 2024, involving close to 20,000 workers.

This month, Canada’s two largest ports (Vancouver and Montreal) have been completely or partially shut down due to labour disruptions. In September, a strike by grain handlers at the Port of Vancouver disrupted exports during peak shipping season. In August, the country’s two largest railways, including Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), came to a halt due to labour work stoppages. Before that, a strike shut down one of the nation’s largest airlines and threatened to shut down another. That was after the St. Lawrence Seaway was forced to close a year ago, which happened months after the previous B.C. port shutdown that went on for two weeks in July, 2023.

These are self-inflicted harm to our supply chains. A work stoppage of any duration or even the threat of a work stoppage causes serious disruption to Canada’s supply chains and harms the country’s reputation as a stable, dependable trading partner.

The dispute at the Port of Montreal is the third in four years. Canadian labour instability has become a chronic problem. The pattern of disruption is forcing global shipping companies to look elsewhere and ship through alternative U.S. ports. Canada needs a reliable method to resolve economically damaging labour disputes; one that respects the collective bargaining process, while avoiding disruptions when negotiations fail.

As a country we place a high value on collective bargaining and firmly believe that the best deals are found at the bargaining table. But while CPKC has an excellent track record of reaching negotiated agreements with the vast majority of our unions, we have repeatedly faced bargaining with certain unions where it has become clear that a negotiated agreement is simply unachievable.

While CPKC did lock out Teamsters workers back in August, that had come after the union issued a strike notice. The company had little choice in the matter. This is not our unique problem but one faced by companies across the country.

In such situations, Canada needs a mechanism to maintain industrial peace that does not repeatedly disrupt and damage the supply chains Canadians depend on every day. Other countries do this effectively. It can – and must – be done in Canada.

The federal government must step in to protect the clear national interest by putting an end to the frequent disruptions and mandating the parties to resolve their differences through binding arbitration when deadlocked. While this did happen with CPKC less than 24 hours after the labour disruption, there had been no certainty of that. And that one day is costly. One day of stoppage is three to five days of recovery.

Canada must prepare for the USMCA review by addressing its chronic labour instability now. It should start by rapidly resolving the current port strikes. Then, there needs to be a serious national conversation about improving the legal tools the federal government has available to prevent – or rapidly end – a labour disruption that is threatening Canada’s national interest.

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submitted 11 hours ago by LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Decent article for the more pro-Israel family members (unless they’re Islamophobic). A lot of information that others that are more focused on the riot itself don’t go into, simply by providing a lot of context for things happening in Israel.

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submitted 11 hours ago by LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

Inshallah, you shall attain your freedom.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 5 points 17 hours ago

Yep, work to the bone, it your still part-time so you don’t get any benefits. Your schedule sounds absolutely awful. You should look into compression socks if you haven’t yet. They help you if you’re on your feet all day.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago

It helps that I’m an introvert so I don’t need that much interaction but still…it does get kinda lonely. The occasional after work hangout or family time is good tho. And I try to get in some reading time or something in between everything else.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 23 points 1 day ago

Bro I just want to make enough for rent, groceries and utilities. I don’t want anything else 😭😭😭

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I know this seems like baby numbers for some of y’all. It is baby numbers for some of my coworkers who’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for a lot longer - I’ve somehow managed to not get my two jobs to schedule me on the same day so I haven’t had to work too much on a given day. Everyone else I know does that tho.

I finally have a couple days off. But I have so much pending shit to do during then. I don’t have energy for anything.

Revolution soon pls.

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[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

After a year of cheerleading genocide, now these news agencies are finding their humanity. Just like they do with every atrocity of the west.

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Its analysis found around 44% of verified victims were children and 26% women. The ages most represented among the dead were five to nine-year-olds.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 31 points 4 days ago

It is important to note that exceeding 1.5C in a single year is not equivalent to breaching the Paris Agreement limit. The goal is generally considered to refer to long-term warming – typically over two or three decades – rather than annual temperatures that include the short-term influence of natural fluctuations in the climate, such as El Niño.

Fucking lmao. So by the time the politicians are ready to say we’ve breached 1.5, we’ll all be dead. Good to know.

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[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 21 points 4 days ago

I will be depressed. I will be sad. I will be angry. I will blow up at liberals and conservatives.

Oh, you meant about Trump?

Trump will begin implementing some policies from Project 2025, especially around restrictions surrounding abortion/reproductive health, LGBTQ rights, and immigration/refugee policies.

You’ll also see a reversal of many of the good Biden-era domestic achievements surrounding labour and consumer protections (maybe by gutting the NLRLB, but that may be a longer term project) and definitely getting rid of Lina Khan.

More Trump-appointed judges at the lower levels, even if not at the Supreme Court (within the six-month timeframe) and beginning the process of staffing federal agencies with Trump loyalists.

Begin the rollback of EPA and environmental standards, maybe gesture towards leaving the Paris Accords.

Probably some more stuff too.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 9 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

People really underestimate climate change (esp. wrt its impact on global south vs on north).

Also I don’t like his policy towards Iran. And let’s see if he is worse on Palestine or not. Plus it’ll give a boost to fascist parties everywhere.

38

Why must you put the rest of the world through this bullshit again.

I feel for everyone who’s gonna be struggling - queer, poc, undocumented, women. I fear for the global south. I fear for the earth.

It seems like young men are being men. Dipshits. Also, looks like suburban white women hate minorities more than want abortion. Cool. Cool cool cool.

Not like kkkanada is much better. PP is probably gonna get a boost from this - hopefully our Libs and NDP see this as a warning sign and coalesce like the French did to keep the fascists out.

But maybe I’m just in denial. Everyone I talk to hates Trudeau and Singh - and while I hate them for good reasons (they’re both libs - one a neoliberal, the other a sucdem) others hate them for wrong reasons - Trudeau for so many, Singh cuz racism. Which is very worrying. And annoying.

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submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

Work? Forget about it. School? Forget about it. Family obligations? Principles? Not American? Just go out and VOTE.

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She seems very good.

Content Warning: there is an American asshole from I24 at one point. It gets a bit confrontational. Other than that, it’s incredible.

It’s honestly very cathartic seeing someone at the highest possible level be this honest and upfront about what is going on. Also, Abby Martin is there.

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What happens next? (hexbear.net)
[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 107 points 7 months ago

Kapitalist, Konservative, Khristian = Russia since the 1990s.

May Allah destroy the Amerikan empire and this shambling Russian corpse in one strike.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 95 points 9 months ago

I always said it, but I never understood it till I watched Bernie’s stance on Gaza in real time.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 119 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I feel incredibly sad and depressed and disillusioned with Bernie, AOC and everyone else. Fuck them all. They will sell the rest of the world to the devil for a promise of some progress on the domestic front that’ll get broken anyways. And they know it’ll be broken! They know it! So why not stand in solidarity?! Why make the deal at all?

I’m just done.

[-] LibsEatPoop@hexbear.net 97 points 1 year ago

Thread with cope if you want to browse.

ITS JUST AN ANCIENT SLAVIC PAGAN RUNE BRO. ITS AN ANCIENT SLAVIC PAGAN RUUUUUUUUUUNE.

You'll have to scroll and open some replies to see the cope, as by now some normies have updooted the sane "fuck the nazis" type comments. But they're there. Lotsa them. Along with a lotta "fuck Russia" comments.

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LibsEatPoop

joined 4 years ago