CALGARY—If Daniel Walter wasn’t walking a picket line in Calgary, he might be at home with his wife. Or unexpectedly rushing to a job.

The life of a railroad worker is one of incredible uncertainty, according to three Calgary-based conductors on strike. All said they work on a constant “on-call” basis. Within two hours of receiving a call from their supervisor, they need to be at their assigned train — no matter the time of day or night.

“It’s very sporadic,” Walter said, during a break from picketing, trudging across a set of tracks leading to the city’s CN Sarcee depot on a snowy Tuesday morning. “You’ll go from thinking you’re working 12 hours from now to, all of a sudden, get called right away when you’re just getting ready to go to bed.”

Around 3,000 conductors, yard workers and other railway workers with CN went on strike as of 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC), the union representing the strikers, isn’t too concerned about pay rates, but listed safety as a big issue. They cited certain practices performed by CN, such as requiring conductors to use remote controls to shuttle trains between lots while hanging onto the outside of the locomotive.

But one of their biggest concerns is fatigue — and it isn’t confined to one particular company. According to an annual watchlist from the Transportation Safety Board, an independent investigator charged with improving safety practices, sleep-related fatigue issues have been a contributing factor in 31 railway incidents since the early 1990s.

“Fatigue management … has long proved challenging for employers and employees — notably because of unpredictable start times in freight operations, long duty hours, and rotating day and night shifts,” the watchlist reads.

Dave Law, another CN conductor, said railway workers are still expected to show up for work well-rested, regardless of when they’re ordered to report for duty. Turning down shifts can lead to harassment from managers, he said, so workers will sometimes show up tired.

The issue of scheduling has been a sore point in union negotiations with CN. The three conductors reported working anywhere between 30 and 70 hours a week, depending on the volume of freight CN ships at any given time.

In a statement issued shortly before the strike began, the TCRC accused the company of extending work hours to allow its workforce to do more with fewer people. In some cases, Law said, CN wants to cut the mandatory rest times between certain kinds of shifts in half.

“They want to have us away from home longer — less time off when you do get home,” Walter said. “The work-life balance is really, really a big issue. Fatigue is a big issue.”

Law said this translates over into family life for railroad workers. Many of them miss birthdays or Christmas constantly. It particularly affects those who have children. Law was told when he was hired that the divorce rate for railroad workers is extremely high because of the job’s demands.

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“My wife does not see me very much,” Law said.

The strikers said they tried handling fatigue however they could. Chris Hazel, a 14-year veteran CN conductor, said his work turned him into a napper. Caffeine also helps. But he said he’s always conscious of how fatigue can impair him on the job.

“You try to take extra precautions and make sure that you’re paying attention and make sure you know exactly what needs to be done,” he said.

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