There appeared to be fewer visitors to the Canadian War Museum Wednesday than on previous Remembrance Days, but the noticeable difference was the number of museum staff who were outside rather than inside working.

More than 200 museum employees have been on strike for nearly two months. On Wednesday, they stood silently with signs marking the day of remembrance.

"We would rather be inside the walls of the building doing our work, but we feel a very strong commitment to Remembrance Day, to the veterans who sacrificed.

"So we feel very strongly that it is important to be here," said picket Sandra O'Quinn who would normally have been involved in planning Remembrance Day events at the museum.

"We have decided to have this line of honour instead of picketing. We will not be blocking anybody, and we will not be having our regular union activities," said Daniel Poulin president of the local branch of the Pubic Service Alliance of Canada.

As usual on Nov. 11, entrance to the museum was free, and dozens of people crowded into a small room where at exactly 11 a.m. a shaft of sunlight lit up the tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Alexander Elder, a Second World War veteran who volunteers at the museum, said he doesn't like to see his friends off work.

"It's too bad they have to go to strike mode," Elder said. "They are just ordinary people trying to do their thing; it's too bad the government, the museum, has put blocks in their way."

The strike is over wages and job security, but on Wednesday museum administrators decided not to discuss the labour dispute.

"I think it's very important today to focus on our veterans, their courage and their sacrifice," said museum spokeswoman Chantal Schryer.