Man with heart condition says CN tried to hire him
Source: CBC News
Published: February 14th 2007  

A retired Saskatchewan train conductor with a heart condition says CN Rail tried to hire him to fill in during the strike, but he rejected the offer.

Jim Pratt got the call Friday just after some 3,000 CN workers, including conductors, began walking picket lines.

Pratt worked on trains for almost three decades as an engineer and a conductor before retiring last year on a medical pension.

He has a heart condition, takes pills and is on a list for surgery, so he was surprised when someone from CN's human resources department called him and asked if he'd work under contract as a conductor — the person who's in charge of a freight train and its crews.

"There was lots of things I could've said to him, but basically I just told him the polite answer: 'You'd better look in your records because I'm on a medical pension and I can't be on a train anyway,'" he said.

"According to the board of transport, I'd be breaking the law if I went to work."

CN officials wouldn't comment on the phone call. The company says it has a strike plan, but it won't discuss details except to say that managers are keeping the trains rolling.

Two trains operated by managers derailed on Tuesday in Alberta and B.C. According to CN, no one was hurt.

Union officials have said it shows what can happen when supervisors with limited experience running trains do the job. CN said the derailments have nothing to do with the strike.