(The Canadian Press circulated the following article on December 21.)
MONTREAL — The federal labour minister is calling on Via Rail and its conductors and engineers to overcome their differences in the hopes of averting a potentially crippling strike which the union is threatening to unleash on Christmas Eve.
Joe Fontana’s office said it asked the director general of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to step up efforts to hammer out a deal.
“The minister of labour and housing today asked representatives of Via Rail Canada Inc. and Teamster Canada Rail Conference to settle their collective bargaining differences without resorting to a disruptive work stoppage during the holiday travel season,” Fontana’s office said Wednesday in a release.
About 350 Via Rail engineers and conductors, affiliated with a division of Teamsters Canada, have been without a contract since Dec. 1, 2000. Workers voted Monday to give their union a strike mandate.
Fontana’s office said if no deal is reached by Dec. 24, it expects the union to begin striking, which could create a nightmare scenario for travellers trying to get home for the holidays.
The union said in a release Tuesday it will only strike as a last-resort, adding that “the negotiation committee remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached without work stoppage.”
Calls placed to Via Rail’s Montreal office were not immediately returned Wednesday night.
Earlier this year, Teamster Canada and CN reached a five-year deal with 1,750 CN locomotive engineers, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have affected commuter in Toronto and Montreal.