The government’s intervention in the rail dispute is especially troubling for a number of reasons.

For starters, this was an employer lockout imposed in an effort to extract concessions that rail workers argue will make both themselves and the broader public less safe.

Larry Hubich, former president of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour, in fact argues that the rail employers, along with other companies who are members of FETCO (Federally Regulated Employers – Transportation and Communications), were trying to cause enough economic disruption through the lockout to force the government to curtail rail and federal workers’ rights to strike. It seems the government largely obliged.