About 1,700 freight locomotive engineers with Canadian National Railway Co., one of North America's largest railroads, have walked off the job after mediated contract talks collapsed.
CN communications director Mark Hallman, said early Saturday that the strike would not affect Via Rail passenger service or commuter rail service in the Montreal area.
"We're going to try to provide the best service we can, given the circumstances," Hallman said.
Teamsters Canada Rail Conference president Daniel Shewchuk said customers who ship goods by rail cross-country would be most affected by the work stoppage. Canadian National is the country's largest freight railroad.
Teamsters union spokesman Stephane Lacroix says a strike could have been postponed had the railway agreed to negotiate and not impose a 1.5 percent wage increase and revised mileage caps for the company's union locomotive engineers.
CN said its locomotive engineers work on average 37 hours per week under the current 3,800-mile cap and the 4,300-mile cap will increase that on average to approximately 41 hours.
The railway also said that rather than working between 15 and 17 days per month on average, the locomotive engineers will work between 16 and 18 days per month on average.
Canada's largest railway invoked contractual changes three days after negotiations broke off Nov. 20 following 14 months of talks.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference followed by issuing a 72-hour strike notice.
The railway's last contract offer included a 2 percent wage increase in each of 2009, 2010, 2011 and three percent for 2012, along with standard benefit improvements. That was contingent on concluding a stable long-term agreement.
The most recent strike at CN ended after more than two months in 2007 when Parliament enacted back-to-work legislation affecting 2,800 conductors represented by the United Transportation Union.
