(The following report appeared on the Toronto Star website on July 18.)
TORONTO — Unionized VIA Rail workers across Canada voted 93 per cent in favour of a strike this Sunday if contract negotiations this week fail.
A strike by the 2,600 Canadian Auto Workers union employees would paralyze VIA Rail’s services from coast to coast.
Bob Chernecki, assistant to CAW president Buzz Hargrove, said the most recent collective agreement expired in December 2006.
“It’s time now to take this seriously,” Chernecki said from the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal, where negotiations are taking place this week.
There are three separate collective agreements: the first comprises station workers such as clerks or ticket-sellers; the second deals with employees who serve meals and drinks; and the third covers those who service the trains and locomotives. Talks will continue in Montreal for the next five days, and two federal negotiators are helping the parties.