Ed Burkhardt is going easy on the folks of Lac-Megantic because after all, "they went through hell."
That hell took the shape of a hellacious fireball that destroyed the centre of their town when one of Fast Eddie's trains derailed, taking the lives of 47 locals.
That really sucks, but Mr. Burkhardt wants people to know he's hurtin' too. His net worth ain't quite what it used to be, although he is happy to point out that his European operations continue to haul dangerous goods without incident.
Burkardt continues to blame everybody and everything except his own reckless management for the disaster. Local fire-crews caused the trains brakes to fail when they turned the locomotives off.
The lone employee responsible for the mile-long train didn't set enough brakes.
Tank cars aren't build soundly.
The cargo wasn't inspected and labelled properly.
His decision to defer maintenance and cut train crews down to a single operator had nothing to do with it, and while he believes that safety protocols may need to be tightened up, that's something that shouldn't be the purview of heavy handed regulators. It should be left to managers.
Like him.
Showing posts with label Edward Burkhardt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edward Burkhardt. Show all posts
Friday, December 27, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Best joke ever
According to the Toronto papers, or at least one of them, Edward Burkhardt claims that one guy in a locomotive (attached to four unmanned locomotives and 72 cars of explosive petroleum products) is safer than two because there will be fewer distractions...
...wait till the airlines hear about this!
...wait till the airlines hear about this!
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
The trouble with efficiency
I don't know the man. He could be a decent tax-paying God-fearing regular guy, for all I know.
But Ed Burkhardt has grown rich by riding our "efficiency" craze to absurd extremes.
There's 60 cars in a train and a crew of 5?
Let's go for a couple more cars and a couple fewer crew.
That's more efficient.
The shareholders and the business press applaud.
Hey, wouldn't it be more efficient if we sacked another worker and added another few cars to the train?
Oh ya! Now we're talking EFFICIENCY!!!
The shareholders augment their positions and the business press wet their pants.
Next thing you know, there's one tired guy at the end of a shift responsible for an 80 car train of highly volatile cargo.
That's absurd!
You know how it ends.
But Ed Burkhardt has grown rich by riding our "efficiency" craze to absurd extremes.
There's 60 cars in a train and a crew of 5?
Let's go for a couple more cars and a couple fewer crew.
That's more efficient.
The shareholders and the business press applaud.
Hey, wouldn't it be more efficient if we sacked another worker and added another few cars to the train?
Oh ya! Now we're talking EFFICIENCY!!!
The shareholders augment their positions and the business press wet their pants.
Next thing you know, there's one tired guy at the end of a shift responsible for an 80 car train of highly volatile cargo.
That's absurd!
You know how it ends.
Monday, July 8, 2013
The impenetrable mystery of the Lac Megantic rail disaster
I've been watching the news coverage of the Lac Megantic aftermath...
Nobody could see it coming...
Guess we should move those rail tracks so that when trains full of hazardous goods inexplicably explode they don't do it in the downtown of a small town near you...
What I find baffling is that nobody so far in the mainstream media has drawn the parallels with the Weyauwega disaster almost twenty years ago.
An 82 car train loaded with hazardous materials and crewed by a single employee derails in the downtown of a small town...
Sound familiar?
Not only that, but the guy who called the shots at that railroad also called the shots at the railroad that owns the Lac Megantic disaster.
His name is Ed Burkhardt, and he thinks having more than one employee aboard an 80 car train carrying hazardous goods through a small town would be a gross violation of his right to maximize profits.
I think it's safe to say that there have been plenty of folks who have protested the single-operator policy that this management imposes, and all of them feared that this could happen.
We've seen this coming since 1996.
The solution isn't to move the railway tracks.
The solution is to remove management who put profits ahead of safety.
Nobody could see it coming...
Guess we should move those rail tracks so that when trains full of hazardous goods inexplicably explode they don't do it in the downtown of a small town near you...
What I find baffling is that nobody so far in the mainstream media has drawn the parallels with the Weyauwega disaster almost twenty years ago.
An 82 car train loaded with hazardous materials and crewed by a single employee derails in the downtown of a small town...
Sound familiar?
Not only that, but the guy who called the shots at that railroad also called the shots at the railroad that owns the Lac Megantic disaster.
His name is Ed Burkhardt, and he thinks having more than one employee aboard an 80 car train carrying hazardous goods through a small town would be a gross violation of his right to maximize profits.
I think it's safe to say that there have been plenty of folks who have protested the single-operator policy that this management imposes, and all of them feared that this could happen.
We've seen this coming since 1996.
The solution isn't to move the railway tracks.
The solution is to remove management who put profits ahead of safety.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
How does a train of 72 oil tank cars and 5 locomotives have a crew of exactly one?
It's called "efficiency," my friend.
And "Fast Eddie" Burkhardt is renowned the world over for the efficiency two-step he brings to the railroads that he and his hedge fund backers have "restructured" over the years.
Step one in a Burkhardt restructuring is to prune back that inevitably "bloated" workforce.
Step two; grind down the wages of those who remain.
After all, every dollar out of a worker's pay packet is another dollar for the dividend pool.
And "Fast Eddie" Burkhardt is renowned the world over for the efficiency two-step he brings to the railroads that he and his hedge fund backers have "restructured" over the years.
Step one in a Burkhardt restructuring is to prune back that inevitably "bloated" workforce.
Step two; grind down the wages of those who remain.
After all, every dollar out of a worker's pay packet is another dollar for the dividend pool.
The legacy of "Fast Eddie" Burkhardt
This weekend isn't the first time one of Fast Eddie's trains burned down a town.
In 1996 Weyauwega Wisconsin suffered an accident with startling similarities to the disaster still unfolding at Lac Megantic, an accident that led to the state requiring a two man crew on every train.
By that time, Burkhardt had developed a reputation for being ruthlessly anti-union. Not surprisingly, his railway had a reputation for having an accident rate three times higher than the industry average.
The modus operandi for all of Burkhardt's adventures in railroading is to fire as many employees as possible, grind down the wages of the ones who remain, and maximize the profits for himself and his fellow investors.
It's a strategy that has made him a very wealthy man.
In 1996 Weyauwega Wisconsin suffered an accident with startling similarities to the disaster still unfolding at Lac Megantic, an accident that led to the state requiring a two man crew on every train.
By that time, Burkhardt had developed a reputation for being ruthlessly anti-union. Not surprisingly, his railway had a reputation for having an accident rate three times higher than the industry average.
The modus operandi for all of Burkhardt's adventures in railroading is to fire as many employees as possible, grind down the wages of the ones who remain, and maximize the profits for himself and his fellow investors.
It's a strategy that has made him a very wealthy man.
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