NO TRAINS FOR THE CANADIANS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31150, 29 August 1966, Page 11

NO TRAINS FOR THE CANADIANS

(NZ.- Press Association—Copi/nahn

TORONTO, August 28.

Canadians settled into a week-end without train or telegraph service yesterday as negotiators awaited a special Parliamentary session this week to resolve the national railway strike.

About 115,000 w6rk- . ers in 16 unions came out on strike in seven railways on Friday, including the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Government-owned Canadian National ' Railways.

The men walked out after negotiators had failed to settle a wage dispute before the noon strike deadline.

No further meetings were scheduled unti. after the Government discloses new legislation tomorrow that could loosen railway regulations.

All domestic telegraph service, which is operated by the two big railroads, was closed. Major industries predicted lay-offs if the strike lasted a week. The Prime Minister, Mr Lester Pearson, has warned that a long strike would be disastrous to the economy.

’ Since freight rates were frozen in 1959 pending an overhaul of the railway system, the railroads have relied on Government subsidies to finance wage increases. Parliamentary Order

If the railroads and the unions are still unable to reach a settlement—and there are few optimists—Parliament is expected to order the men back to work, grant an interim pay increase of perhaps 9 per cent and provide for arbitration if further negotiations fail.

Airlines and bus companies said yesterday they were swamped with travellers, many of whom had seen their transcontinental trains terminated in mid-continent. Canadian Pacific Airlines and 8.0.A.C. were given special permission to carry traffic on the domestic legs of their international services to help Air Canada handle the traffic demands. The ferry service along the east coast was sharply reduced.

Territories feared food and drug shortages, says United Press International. The Government considered mobilising the Coast Guard to run struck ferries for the Maritime provinces. “The entire economy Is in jeopardy and the public interest is wholly endangered as long as this strike goes on,” a spokesman for Mr Pearson warned. The provincial government of Alberta considered airlifting supplies into remote communities 250 to 400 miles north of Edmonton where some 500 persons have only enough food for five to seven days. The residents of Philomena, Conklin and Quigley, many of them elderly, have few telephones and no medical facilities. Canada’s last national railroad shutdown, which was in

effect 16 years ago today, was a nine-day strike in 1950. There are no reports of violence. Some picket lines were formed and strike meetings were held in larger cities, but most workers stayed at home. The rail unions are demanding pay increases averaging 30 per cent, although some individual union demands run to 40 per cent and higher. The strike also threatened to raise the nation's food prices. Wholesale suppliers in both Quebec, which imports more than half of its foodstuff from the United States and other provinces, and New Brunswick warned that meat would be the first to rise. Buses and airlines expanded operations but acknowledged they could not hope to take over the freight shipments handled by railroads.

Left isolated by the strike, Canada’s remote North-west