After a weeklong strike, the Teamsters and Canadian National (CN) have reached a tentative agreement.
The strike by 32-hundred workers — including 12 in Windsor — prompted calls for government intervention and a protest by farmers outside the prime minister's Montreal office yesterday.
But Tuesday morning, the union thanked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for respecting the workers' right to strike and acknowledged the help of Labour Minister Filomena Tassi, Transport Minister Marc Garneau and the federal mediation and conciliation service in reaching the deal.
Local conductor Laura Hasulo says her initial reaction is "pride."
"In the solidarity we showed from coast-to-coast in this country, standing strong for our safety and the ability to book rest and I look forward to seeing the terms of the tentative agreement that will be sent out to all the members to ratify," she says.
Before ratification, Hasulo says there a few things that need to take place.
"The negotiating team will be holding meetings across the country to go through exactly what was reached during the process, so it could take a couple of months to ratify," she says.
Despite how long it could take to ratify, Hasulo says normal operations will resume as of 6am local time Wednesday.
"As normal as they can be," Hasulo says. "We have to get engines in place because so much hasn't run, but yes, we will all be back to work and we will be running trains across this country starting tomorrow morning at 6."
Teamsters represent close to 125,000 workers in Canada in all industries, including over 16,000 in the rail sector.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, with which Teamsters Canada is affiliated, has 1.4 million members in North America.
— with files from AM800's Teresinha Medeiros and The Canadian Press