Alwaght-A major strike has hit Canada’s railway after thousands of locomotive engineers and conductors walked off their jobs at Canadian Pacific Railway to express their dissatisfaction with their wages and benefits, as Press TV reports.
The industrial action was staged on Sunday after contract talks did not produce a deal before the midnight deadline.
The Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC) union has 3,300 locomotive engineers and other train workers as members.
“We require sufficient fatigue countermeasures to protect our members' safety and health,” said the TCRC union in statement issued before the strike.
Reacting to the strike, Canada’s Labor and Status of Women Minister Kellie Leitch said she was “incredibly disappointed” that a deal was not reached between TCRC and Canadian Pacific Railway, also known as CP Rail.
Describing the strike as a “reckless disregard for Canadians and the Canadian economy,” she warned that the government “will review all available options to end any work stoppage expediently, up to and including the introduction of legislation in parliament.”
Earlier this month, a spokesman for the Teamsters cautioned against the extensive effect of any disruption of service on industries that are dependent on trains, saying it would be difficult for railway managers to maintain service.
Canadian Pacific had said last week that if a strike was held, it would “implement its extensive contingency plan by deploying qualified management employees to maintain a reduced freight service on its Canadian network.”
The federal government in 2012 was forced to pass legislation to end a nine-day strike by some 4,800 members of the Teamsters union and CP Rail employees.
A prolonged strike was estimated to cost Canada USD 540 million a week.
