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The Greenbrier Cos. is bracing for a strike at its TrentonWorks freight-car manufacturing plant in Nova Scotia, Canada. The company’s unionized workers might walk off the job as early as today, Greenbrier said.

Collective bargaining agreements expired at the end of 2006. Both parties have been negotiating a new contract while employees work under the old agreement’s terms in the interim.

Greenbrier officials are seeking work rule flexibility and health care cost sharing to keep TrentonWorks competitive, the company said. The car builder’s least competitive manufacturing facility, TrentonWorks has been hit hard by the “dramatic appreciation of the Canada dollar vs. the U.S. dollar and other cost disadvantages,” Greenbrier officials said in a prepared statement.

“We have been clear about the challenges facing our Nova Scotia facility, and have worked hard to support it with business while working on cost reductions and improvements in efficiency,” said Greenbrier President and Chief Executive Officer William Furman. “A strike would affect completion of a major contract that needs to be delivered by April.”