Potential VIA Rail Strike

VIA Rail's employees may strike on June 13

There is a possibility that VIA Rail's employees will be on strike as of 12:01 AM (Eastern) Monday morning, June 13th.

The majority of VIA's administrative, maintenance and station workers are members of the Unifor union. The union and VIA Rail have been negotiating for a new contract since their current contract expired on December 31, 2015.

There are a variety of issues on the table. The union says it is trying to resist concessions to VIA Rail and has a laundry list of issues of its own including contracting out, wages, time off, pension and benefit changes, and so on.

Unifor met with its membership in late May and early June to gather votes for a possible strike, and the membership gave the leadership a strong mandate to strike with an average 96% approval to strike.

Unifor gave its 72 hours notice of strike action on June 9.

VIA Rail has an information page about the potential strike. Basically all of the daily trains would stop, and any long-haul train currently running would proceed to its terminus, or in the case of VIA 1/2, would stop at Winnipeg.

The last time VIA workers threatened to strike was in June 2013. They did not actually go on strike, thankfully.

Let's hope VIA and the union come to an agreement before any strike action takes place.

EDIT: Good news, a tentative deal has been reached.

No Strike

VIA Rail and the Canadian Auto Workers have reached a last-minute tentative agreement and there is no strike today. (VIA press release, CAW press release)

Glad to hear it.

News articles (mostly all using the same Canadian Press article):

• CTV News
• CBC
• Winnipeg Free Press

VIA Rail Strike Imminent

It seems that the strike is going to go ahead, barring some last-minute negotiations. The Canadian Auto Workers union issued this release at 08:30 Eastern this morning and VIA responded shortly afterward. It seems they are far apart.

The strike is set to begin at 12:01 AM (time zone not specified). At that point management will run a reduced set of trains and services as I previously said.

I sure hope that they can come to an agreement quickly. I believe VIA Rail is endangered in this country and the strike will not help. I do not think that many people are going to be sympathetic to the union but time will tell. I'll gaze into my crystal ball and predict back to work legislation will be implemented within 7 days.

News articles: CBC, Winnipeg Free Press

Update on Potential VIA Rail Strike

VIA Rail has posted a detailed notice about the looming (potential) strike. VIA plans to run its trains at a reduced frequency and only with Economy class.

A quick summary:

• Corridor (Quebec-Windsor) trains to run twice daily each way (one morning, one evening, each direction) for the most part
• Some trains to run once daily (Toronto to Sarnia, London, Niagara Falls, Kingston)
• The following regional trains to run once a week each way, departing Montréal on Friday, other end on Sunday:
  • The Ocean
  • The Chaleur Montréal-Gaspé train
  • The Montréal-Jonquière train
  • The Montréal-Senneterre train
• The Canadian to depart Toronto on Tuesdays and depart Vancouver on Fridays (departing Winnipeg on Thursdays and Sundays respectively)
• The Hudson Bay Winnipeg-Churchill train to depart Winnipeg on Tuesdays and Churchill on Thursdays.

The Sunbury-White River train will continue to operate as normal, because it is operated by Canadian Pacific crews.

Note that there would be no sleepers and no diners. The cars may or may not be on the train but they will not be in service. Limited snacks would be available in trains with Skyline cars.

Tickets will have to be purchased online only and only a few stations will be staffed.

Let's hope it doesn't come to this! (although the railfan in me would like to see a Canadian without sleepers)

Possible VIA Rail Strike

The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union has issued a 72-hour strike notice. The CAW represents VIA's customer service, on-board service and maintenance workers. They do not represent the engineers, who are represented by the Teamsters.

The CAW has been in negotiations with VIA since this past October and the membership voted 94% in favour of a strike. The CBC is reporting that they have said they won't walk out until at least June 14.

The strike notice said its members are frustrated with the recent changes in VIA, including the reductions in service and drop in federal subsidy. There are no specific details on what the outstanding issues are, but it seems that salary is a significant part of it.

You may remember that the CAW last threatened a strike in June 2010. It's like last time... negotiate starting in October, threaten to go on strike in June. I suspect the timing has to do with the summer season.

Last time, VIA posted a contingency plan that had management attempting to run most Corridor trains and running the other trains once a week. I find it interesting that the same URL now shows "Access denied" and not "Not found". There is nothing yet on the VIA "media room" page about the strike notice.

UPDATE: Details are now posted.

Potential VIA Strike

VIA Rail posted a notice of potential work stoppage aka possible strike by the Canadian Auto Workers.

The union has been negotiating since October 20, 2009 and their contract expired at the end of 2009. They voted 94% in favour of a strike earlier this year. The strike would involve on-board staff, clerical workers, ticket vendors and maintenance workers.

VIA's contingency plan has VIA attempting to operate most Corridor trains and running the other long distance trains such as the Canadian, Chaleur and Hudson Bay once a week.

Hopefully they can resolve their differences.

CN Strike Over?

Apparently the strike is over, according to the Teamsters Rail site.

Stop and Go

I went up to Wilkes Avenue Tuesday (Dec 1) at noon to catch the Hudson Bay. I realized after I arrived that the schedule was changing effective that day; I wasn't sure if the Hudson Bay was even departing on Tuesday through the winter.

I took position just east of Kenaston. Soon I saw a freight approaching on the south track from the west. It turned out to be a long intermodal train led by CN 2262 and 2296.

They rolled past, with a toot of the horn and a friendly wave from the (management) engineer, then came to a stop with the head end by the golf dome. Huh? Why did they stop? They had a green signal, so no reason to stop at all...

An unmarked van drove up on the north side. I think they were doing a crew change out here on the main line to avoid any strikers that might be present nearer to the CN yard.

I relocated to the CN-CP diamond at St. James Junction to catch them starting up again. I barely got there in time before the train rumbled by. I really like the sound in this video.


After they passed, I went back to my Kenaston location. I saw another eastbound freight on the south track, following the previous intermodal. It had a red signal, due to the intermodal occupying the block in front of them, so it was approaching quite slowly. At the same time, I saw the Hudson Bay coming west on the north track. Which one would get to me first? I was hoping it would be the Hudson Bay, or else I would be blocked like this time.

Fortunately the CN freight stopped (to be met by a vehicle), and so the Hudson Bay came first.

The video was terrible so I didn't post it. Here VIA is passing the CN freight.

Right after that, CN moved up and passed me. The power was CN 2305, 5607, 2615, and ex-BC Rail 4654.

As you may recall, the CN engineers are on strike. I had been wondering why I kept seeing CN trains stopped over Kenaston Boulevard here in Winnipeg. Now I think I know why.

CN Detours

CN is running some trains over the former NBEC / CFMG properties, rather than the normal Edmundston-Moncton (NTR) route. They are doing this because the engineers are not on strike on the northern route, since they are in a different union that is not on strike.

As of 5 PM Atlantic on Sunday, this appears to be what was happening in the Maritimes:

CN 308 (very long) in Campbellton, departing 21:00 or 22:00
CN 121 departed Campbellton 16:00
CN 305 arriving in Campbellton in the evening
CN 120 used the NTR route this morning
CN 308 (another one) should be next eastbound through Campbellton
CN 408 arrived Dartmouth just after noon
CN 407 departing Dartmouth for Moncton 16:50

The challenge with using the northern (ICR) route is that speeds are slower and there are no long passing sidings. Meets between long freights have to take place in yards. On the plus side (for CN) they use actual engineers rather than CN managers to drive the trains.

VIA is running on time in the Maritimes at present.

CN Strike is On

The CBC is reporting that the CN Engineer's strike is underway. I assume trains are being run by management personnel. Keep in mind the conductors are not on strike. Also, the former NBEC / CFMG / etc. properties are not on strike as they belong to a different union.

Let's hope the strike is settled quickly.

CN Engineers' Strike?

CN 5519 leads train 308 at Deersdale, NB, August 3, 2007

The CBC is reporting that CN's 1700 engineers may go on strike as early as ths coming Saturday. They have not had a contract in a year and apparently are nowhere close to coming to an agreement. Hopefully the issues can be resolved in the next few days and the strike can be avoided.

EDIT: This article mentions a meeting with federal mediators to be held on Friday. Also, this article talks about up to 140 Winnipeg engineers "bracing" for the strike.