The Canadian Press Published Friday, July 8, 2022 5:31 AM EDT Last Updated on Friday, July 8, 2022 5:32 AM EDT
Via Rail says services across Canada could be suspended next week, after it received a 72-hour strike notice from the union representing approximately 2,400 of its employees.
In a notice on its website, Unifor said that if an agreement cannot be reached before 12:01 a.m. on Monday, June 11, maintenance workers, on-board service personnel, cooks, sales and customer service staff will be on the picket line.
He said that both the Unifor Council 4000 and the Unifor Local 100 held strike votes from June 20 to July 1, and the results were 99.4% in favor of the strike in Local 100 and 99.3% in favor of the 4000 Council members strike.
Unifor said one of the main problems is job security, and its members are frustrated that the company “continues to push for concessions and not work towards a fair and equitable collective agreement.”
In its own statement, Via Rail said it remains committed to holding negotiations in good faith to try to reach a new agreement without any interruption of service before the deadline.
However, he warned that if the two sides cannot reach an agreement, all services will be suspended for the duration of the strike and until normal operations can be resumed safely.
The company said the possible interruption of work comes at a time when it has resumed almost all its services and acknowledged that this would be a major disruption for passengers and for communities across the country.
Via Rail said affected passengers can change their reservation at no cost or request a full refund of unused tickets.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 8, 2022.