(UPDATED) Passengers travelling on VIA Rail today (Monday) are being urged to check if services are running after union members voted to strike if an agreement with the company is not reached by an extended deadline of 4 p.m.

Via Rail had said on Friday that services across Canada could be suspended as early as 12.01 a.m. this morning after it received a 72-hour strike notice from the union representing approximately 2,400 of its employees. Early this morning the deadline was extended.

In a notice on its website, Unifor had said if an agreement was not reached by 12.01, maintenance workers, on-board service personnel, chefs, sales agents, and customer service staff would be on the picket line.

It said both Unifor Council 4000 and Unifor Local 100 conducted strike votes from June 20 to July 1, and the results were 99.4% in favour of strike action at Local 100 and 99.3% in favour of strike action from Council 4000 members.

Unifor said a main issue is job security, and its members are frustrated the company “continues to push concessions and not work towards a fair and equitable collective agreement.”

In its own release, Via Rail said it remained committed to holding negotiations in good faith in an effort to reach a new agreement without any disruption of service before the deadline. However, it warned that if the two sides could reach a deal, all services would be suspended for the duration of the strike and until normal operations can safely resume.

The company said the potential work disruption comes at a time when it has resumed nearly all of its services, and it recognized this would be a major disruption for passengers and for communities across the country.

Via Rail said affected passengers may change their reservation at no cost or request a full refund for unused tickets.