Via Rail makes contingency strike plans
Written by jrood
Via Rail Canada revealed a contingency plan should a work stoppage occur next week. The plan calls for running a skeleton schedule of train services across Canada if ticketing vendors and maintenance staff go on strike.
On the eve of Canada’s busy vacation season, Via Rail said in a
statement that contract talks with 2,200 unionized employees had resumed
and it was optimistic a deal could be reached ahead of Sunday’s
midnight deadline.
Via Rail provides intercity and cross-country
service to about 11,000 passengers every day. The federally owned
corporation also provides rail service to remote communities in Canada’s
North.
The employees, who provide services in Via’s stations,
telephone sales offices, maintenance centers and offices, as well as
on-board trains, gave the Canadian Auto Workers union a strike mandate
earlier this month.
Employees, who have been without a contract
since December 31, 2009, are unhappy about issues such as routes being
reduced and training wages. They will need to give Via Rail 72 hours
notice of a strike.
If they do go on strike, Via said it will
operate daily morning and end-of-day departures in the Quebec
City-Windsor corridor and once-a-week service on most trains outside
this route.
Via services in northern Ontario and on Vancouver
Island would not be affected by a strike as they are operated by a third
party.
Last July, Via service ground to a halt when locomotive
engineers walked off the job. They are not part of this round of
negotiations.
