The collective agreement will be retroactive to January 1
Disruption at Canada's VIA Rail has been avoided after the transportation company and Unifor settled on an agreement just hours before the scheduled strike action.
VIA Rail Canada previously alerted its passengers of possible disruptions in its operations after Unifor Council 4000 and Local 100 issued a 72-hour strike notice on Friday. This would see over 2,000 maintenance workers, on-board service personnel, chef, sales agents, and customer service staff on the picket line instead of the workplace.
The strike's deadline was later pushed to Monday afternoon, with the company saying some services may be impacted because of it. And just hours before the deadline struck, Unifor and VIA Rail said on separate announcements that the strike would not push through thanks to a tentative deal reached between the parties.
No details about the deal have been released, but both sides involved said details of the new contract will be released once VIA Rail's Unifor member ratify the deal with a vote.
According to VIA Rail, the collective agreements will be retroactive to January 1, 2022, and will be in effect until December 31, 2024.
Scott Doherty, Unifor's lead negotiator and executive assistant to the national president, lauded the deal in the statement.
"Fighting back against the concessions that VIA proposed wasn't easy, but the resolve, commitment, and solidarity of our VIA Rail members, helped the bargaining committees to push forward and achieve this tentative agreement," said Doherty.
"I want to thank our members and the travelling public for their patience and support, while we continued to negotiate past the strike deadline to achieve this agreement. Without them this deal would not have been possible."
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Meanwhile, VIA rail president and chief executive officer Martin Landry said they are pleased with the outcome of the negotiations.
"VIA Rail is pleased to have negotiated these agreements and recognises the hard work of both parties during this process," he said in a statement.
"We sympathise 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. As we look forward to ratification, these tentative agreements allow our teams to get back to doing what we do best: serving Canadians throughout the country."