Some 2,500 Via Rail Unifor members issue strike mandate

New passenger trains sit on the tracks at the Via Rail Canada Maintenance Centre in Montreal, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi.

By Lia Lévesque, The Canadian Press

Posted May 26, 2025 2:49 pm.

Some 2,500 Via Rail workers have just given themselves a strike mandate.

These are members of the Unifor union, which is affiliated to the FTQ in Quebec. The strike mandate was given by 97.5 per cent of them.

These workers include administration, customer service, on-board service, maintenance, call center, mechanics and other skilled trades.

The parties are scheduled to meet this week in conciliation. Conciliation is scheduled to last until May 31.

Under federal rules, this will be followed by what is known as a cooling-off period, lasting 21 days. Only after this period will Unifor and the employer be in a position to call a strike or lock-out, on June 22.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews

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