QUOTE: Labour Minister urges 'common decency' to avoid Via Rail strike Last Updated Fri, 23 Dec 2005 07:16:31 EST CBC News The federal labour minister wants the parties negotiating a new contract at Via Rail to show "common sense and common decency" and not disrupt service during Christmas. Thousands of Canadians are travelling, and the possibility of a strike or lockout would interfere with holiday plans, Labour Minister Joe Fontana told reporters on a conference call on Thursday. "I don't want to see Canadians used as pawns in a work stoppage," he said. "They have to take the public interest in mind." Fontana said his plea applied to both Via management and the 350 engineers represented by Teamsters Canada. The union set a strike deadline of Christmas Eve. Management has not yet threatened a lockout, he said. Fontana's advice for Via travellers was "hang in." The parties are talking with help from federal officials, and he characterized the issues in dispute as snags, not brick walls. The engineers have been without a contract for five years, although part of the delay arose because the Teamsters took over as bargaining agent from another union about two years ago. On Tuesday, the union issued a press release saying they had a "very strong mandate" but that there was hope a deal could be reached. "The negotiation committee remains optimistic that an agreement can be reached without work stoppage," Gilles Halle, the president of the VIA Rail and Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, said in a statement. Via said it is negotiating to reach a settlement. If the strike does occur, Via will ensure passengers in transit at the time get to their destinations, the railway said. If the strike happens, there is not much the government can do, Fontana said. Parliament can legislate strikers back to work, but it's not sitting at the moment because of the election. He said the same advice he gave to Via and its union applies to the baggage handlers at Vancouver airport, where there is also a Dec. 24 strike deadline.
QUOTE: For immediate distribution - Thursday, December 22, 2005 VIA pursuing talks with union representing locomotive engineers VIA Rail Canada issued earlier today the following statement. "VIA Rail Canada representatives are currently negotiating with the Teamster Canada Rail Conference union representing some 350 locomotive engineers in a bid to avert a work stoppage. The union has given notice to the company of its intent to go on strike on Saturday, December 24, 2005, 4:30 pm EST. "The Minister of Labour and Housing has appointed a mediator who is assisting the parties in the negotiation process. "VIA is working hard to avoid a service disruption to customers and remains hopeful that an agreement will be reached before the set deadline. In the interim, VIA is also taking steps to ensure that passengers already en route are protected, should there be a work stoppage. Customers with individual enquiries concerning their travel plans may contact VIA at 1-888-VIA-RAIL. Or check for the latest news at http://www.viarail.ca"
QUOTE: More Briti***han anything that ran in Britain, this archetypal Mail Engine gave over 75 years of service and is still actively in use. This is the British Engineering Standards Association “Heavy Passenger” 4-6-0, introduced in 1905, of which a number (but not one of the originals) are still in passenger service in India at the time of writing (1987). The railways of India were developed mainly by private enterprise under a concession system whereby the then British Government of India guaranteed a modest return on investment in return for a measure of control, as well as eventual ownership. The government felt that one of their perquisites was to set standards and, having made rather a mess of the gauge question, made up for it with an excellent job of wetting out a range of standards designs for locomotives. The first BESA 4-6-0s were solid hunks of sound engineering, bigger when introduced than almost anything that ran in the same country. Their closest relations at home seem to have been some 4-6-0s built in 19-3 for the Glasgow & South Western Railway by the North British Locomotive Co. of Glasgow. NGL were to supply the first standard 4-6-0s to India. The BESA 4-6-0s stayed in top-line work even after their successors the India Railway Standard (IRS), XA and XB 4-6-2s had arrived in the mid-1920s, because of unsatisfactory qualities amongst the new arrivals. The great success of the BESA designs seems to lie in the fact that they were taken from British practice as it existed, with the difference that both average and maximum speeds in India were 25 per cent lower than at home while loads were about the same.
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