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VIA Rail engineers to strike 12 EDT, Tourism hit in Canada

by albertacowpoke | July 24, 2009 at 04:38 am

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Travel plans have been derailed for many tourists in Canada. VIA rail is poised to go on strike at noon today. This will essentially cancel all passenger rail travel in Canada.

Talks between the union and VIA rail broke off early this morning setting the stage for this strike. Via and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union have been in intense talks all week attempting to ward off this strike.

VIA carries close to 12,000 passengers every day. Many tourists who had their summer planned around rail travel will be affected. VIA has announced that passengers can get a rebate on unused rail tickets. This is not very comforting to tourists, especially those that have come from overseas.

Summer train travel is likely to be derailed today with labour talks between Via Rail and 340 locomotive engineers hitting an "impasse."

Via and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union have been in intense talks all week to try and ward off a strike, but negotiations broke down overnight.

"Talks continued until 1 am EDT this morning, July 24," said a statement from the company.

"Despite intense negotiations over the past four days, the parties were unfortunately unable to reach an agreement, and the negotiations are currently at an impasse."

The union has issued a strike notice indicating it intends to hit the picket line at noon ET on Friday, unless something drastic happens.

The union representing 340 locomotive engineers said that the workers had walked off the job. The union made the announcement shortly after noon today. The effectively derails summer travel for approximately 11,000 tourists a day.

Summer travel has been derailed for many Canadians now that the union representing Via Rail's 340 locomotive engineers said the workers have walked off the job.

The union made the announcement Friday shortly after a noon deadline for a deal in the ongoing contract dispute passed without a settlement.

The engineer walkout effectively shuts down the bulk of national passenger rail service across the country.

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Roy C

at 09:04 on July 24th, 2009

Since I can safely assume that this union is a longstanding union, then I have to guess that the issue here is money.

Now, when so many have no jobs or are under-employed, a state-subsidized industry's union goes on strike, hurting the public that pays part of its salary?

I am pro-union, but this is an abuse.

albertacowpoke

at 12:19 on July 24th, 2009

Although this may be the most effective time of the year for them to strike to make their point, they're also hurting Canada's reputation. So many foreigners come to ride the train to see Canada that way. Although VIA is paying refunds on tickets not used, no one can replace a childs vacation, or an airline ticket that can't be used at the destination. A thoughtful bunch :)