For those of you with plans to travel Canada by rail over the next few weeks, keep your eye on the newspaper. A potential strike date has been set by Via Rail for this Sunday.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2007/17/c7172.html
With the contract negotiation deadline quickly approaching, the CAW will be issuing a strike notice to VIA Rail this afternoon, with the full support of VIA workers across the country. Members have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike action, if necessary, by over 93 per cent.
The strike deadline has been set for July 22 at 00:01 (12:01) and the union has issued the notice to the company. The union remains optimistic that a dispute can be avoided but there are still many key issues outstanding.
Negotiations between the CAW and VIA Rail have been underway for the past number of weeks and have reconvened in Montreal since yesterday, July 16, and will continue to July 22. The parties are being assisted by two federal conciliators who were also present in previous meetings.