Via Rail has achieved labour peace as members of Unifor Local 100 and National Council 4000
voted to accept a new three-year collective agreement with the passenger train operator.
A tentative deal was reached on July 11, hours before a deadline that would have seen 2,400
workers walk off the job and Via Rail’s operations across Canada brought to a halt.
With the new collective agreement in place, workers at the Montreal-based Crown corporation
will see their wages improve by 5.5% retroactive to January 1 of this year and by 3.5% and
2.5% in the following years of the three-year deal.
Unifor praised the agreement and its bargaining committees in a press release, saying their
demands were both “principled and smart.”
Unifor represents more than 2,000 maintenance workers, on-board service personnel, chefs,
sales agents, and customer service staff at Via Rail.
