Thanks, Jim.
In the past, the SMS system was developed without participation or with very little participation from the employees, who should really be the catalysts for it. It's changing a little bit--I will give CN that much--but unfortunately even when you read the safety management system it says “where appropriate they will include the employees”. So it's open to interpretation, by whoever is running the SMS system at that moment, whether or not they're going to bring in employees for their presentation. In the past they haven't. So it is changing and getting a little better.
Todd talked about a disconnect from the top of the house. When we sit at the policy committee level we're very serious about the SMS system. We want to see it work. We try to give our input, but the disconnect.... He spoke about his membership, and probably all our membership have very little knowledge of the SMS system. CN does not put that out to the employees. They do not have participation by the employees.
Yes, they speak very eloquently about it at the top of the house. They seem to be very concerned and honest about it. But by the time it hits the employees it's been either watered down so much, or completely forgotten about. At two o'clock in the morning, when that supervisor has to get a train out of the yard, he's not worried about the safety aspect; he wants to get the train out of the yard.
I'll leave the SMS system and talk about the culture of fear, which also touches on that.