A Via Rail passenger train makes its way along the tracks in Ottawa, on July 11.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Via Rail has reached two tentative labour pacts with its workers after late night bargaining, allowing the passenger train service to dodge a strike that would have added to the chaos and delays already plaguing summer travel in Canada.
Montreal-based Via said Tuesday it cemented deals with Unifor’s Council 4000 and Local 100, covering some 2,400 Via employees, including maintenance workers, on-board service personnel and customer service staff. The agreements still have to be ratified by unionized workers.
“Via Rail is pleased to have negotiated these agreements and recognizes the hard work of both parties during this process,” Martin Landry, chief executive of the company, said in a statement. “We sympathize with the passengers and communities whose plans have been impacted in the past couple of days due to the uncertainty caused by this potential strike.”
A strike would have forced Via to suspend service across Canada. In a typical year, the company operates more than 450 trains a week. It carried five million passengers in 2019, according to its website.
Any labour stoppage would have added to the pressure on Canada’s transportation systems, which are cracking under the weight of a surge in travel after a two-year quiet period brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. This summer, some people had likely turned to the train as an alternative to the turmoil at airports amid reports of long lineups and delays caused by staffing shortages.
Unifor initially issued a 72-hour strike notice to the national rail carrier last Friday, saying 2,400 employees were prepared to walk off the job if a new contract could not be negotiated by 12:01 a.m. on Monday. The strike deadline was then pushed back four more times through Monday as talks continued well into the night.
Details of the tentative agreements were not released. The deals will be retroactive to January of this year and run through the end of 2024, Via said.
Union bargainers pushed back against concessions proposed by Via, Lana Payne, Unifor’s national secretary-treasurer, said in a separate statement. “They were tough and principled and they have proven that when we fight we can win for working people,” she said.
The union has said job security was a key issue on the table during negotiations.
Via has pledged to let customers make changes to their travel plans without service fees for any departures before July 31. Its busiest corridor stretches from Quebec City to Windsor.
Via’s ridership fell to 1.1 million in 2020 as demand vanished amid health restrictions enacted by federal and provincial governments to deal with the spread of the coronavirus. At its worst in April of that year, ridership was down 98 per cent.
The rail service received $187.5-million in federal COVID-19 funding relief, according to its latest strategic plan. It has said it expects to seek more financial aid until demand returns to pre-COVID levels.
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Nicolas Van Praet