Via Rail employees issued a strike notice Friday, just as the busy travel season begins.
Contract talks at Via Rail are underway and expected to continue throughout the weekend.
If no agreement is reached, 2,200 employees will go on strike as soon as of 11:59 p.m. Sunday.
Via spokesperson Malcolm Andrews said service will be reduced, but not halted, in the event of a strike.
That reduction will affect as many as 12,000 commuters daily across Canada.
The CAW union, which represents the employees, issued the 72-hour notice just days after Via submitted an offer to employees in collective contract negotiations.
Some sticking points include cutting seniority provisions, pregnancy leave and vacation schedules.
"Via's proposal is an outright attack on benefits earned over many decades," said Bob Chernecki, assistant to CAW National President in a statement. Chernecki is heading up the negotiations for the union.
The strike will affect Via's service and maintenance personnel, both on-board and in stations, representing as much as two-thirds of the company's workforce.
The company is hoping for a speedy resolution to prevent that scenario, said Andrews.
"Via and the union have both committed to staying at the table and continue negotiating the issues," he said.
Union officials, however, said they are not as confident, considering negotiations have been ongoing since October.
The company's attempt to scale back benefits comes as a result, it said, in a recent drop in sales and federal funding.
"It doesn't give them the licence to steal from us at the end of the day to make it up and that's what we believe is going on here," said Chernecki.
This could be the second Via strike to disrupt travel within a year after engineers walked off the job in July 2009.
