VIA Rail has advised that the national passenger rail company continues to negotiate with Unifor as a strike deadline loomed.
OpenJaw reported Friday that the union representing 2,400 VIA Rail workers had set a deadline of 12:01 AM Monday, 11JUL for strike action.
However, that deadline has been pushed forward to close to the end of business on Monday "as talks have progressed," VIA Rail says. Unifor has pushed the strike deadline until 4:00 p.m. (ET) on Monday, July 11, 2022.
"VIA Rail remains committed to reaching a fair and reasonable agreement," said Martin R Landry, President and Chief Executive Officer in a statement released Monday by the company.
The employees represented by Unifor work in VIA Rail stations, on board its trains, in its maintenance centres, the VIA Customer Centre, and administrative offices. In Friday's statement, the rail company said that, in case of a strike, all service nation-wide would be shut down.
Although talks continue and the strike deadline has been extended, VIA advises that some services for Monday, July 11 may be impacted, and recommends consulting its web site for the latest updates on train status: viarail.ca.
It says the site will be regularly updated.
VIA Rail leadership remains apologetic to customers, with Landry adding in the company statement: "In the past few months, there has been an increased appetite for travel. We recognize the additional stress this situation is placing on our passengers and the communities we serve from coast to coast to coast."
VIA Rail is offering customers the opportunity to make changes to their travel plans without service fees for any departures prior to 31JUL, 2022.
Changes to reservations can be made online at viarail.ca or by phone call 1 888 VIA-RAIL (1 888 842-7245).
