No available shotlist




Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: A national labour dispute which could have wide-spread effect across Canada is coming to a head in Montreal, within a week, an announcement is expected which could tie up the country's railways. On one side there are one-hundred-and-eleven-thousand non-operating railway employees, who want a fourteen-cent hourly wage increase, recommended by a labour conciliation board. On the other side, Canada's railways are fighting for survival. They say they can't afford to pay the increases as long as the Government doesn't let them increase their freight rates. The results of a strike vote are arriving in the various regional union headquarters and observers say the railwaymen favour strike ection.