The city came through last week\u2019s three-day blue-collar worker\u2019s strike relatively unscathed, save for a disruption during rush hour on Thursday and a rally outside City Hall on Friday.<\/p>\n
The city made sure all essential services were maintained throughout the strike, including road repair and street cleaning, operation of sewers and water mains, and operations related to spring flooding, which was a concern throughout the week for boroughs like Pierrefonds-Roxboro and \u00cele-Bizard\u2013Sainte-Genevi\u00e8ve.<\/p>\n
In Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, garbage collection was maintained or postponed until the end of the strike.<\/p>\n
Parking restrictions related to street maintenance were also suspended for the duration.<\/p>\n
The outside workers, represented by CUPE Local 301, started their strike last Wednesday morning, April 15 at 6 p.m. and ended the same time on Saturday. There were groups of picketers with flags and placards outside all municipal garages on Wednesday, including on St. Jacques Street in the C\u00f4te-des-Neiges-NDG borough.<\/p>\n
Union president Jean-Pierre Lauzon held a news conference to kick off the strike. The city, he said, remains inflexible on the union\u2019s wage demands.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have shown openness and goodwill,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cThe non-monetary clauses are now settled. The only thing still holding us back is the city\u2019s insistence on offering an 11 percent increase over five years. This would directly impoverish outside workers during a cost-of-living crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
The union is asking for 20 percent. The average city worker, it says, earns $55,000 a year.<\/p>\n
For its part, the city says it has been working to reach an agreement as quickly as possible for the union\u2019s almost 6,000 workers, an agreement \u201cwhich respects the financial capacity of the city and of Montreal taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been focused on solutions right from the start,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cBut the city\u2019s wage offer is not based on any rigorous comparison, and it does not reflect the economic realities or the outside workers\u2019 essential contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city administration said it wants \u201cto find common ground with the union, and calls on the latter to work together and collaborate to find a solution to the renewal of the collective agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauzon says what the union wants is \u201ca negotiated agreement, and we want to keep working for Montreal, but we won\u2019t sign an agreement that would set our members back, especially in such difficult economic times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Striking is always a last resort, the union says, when all other avenues have been exhausted. The union was on strike for just one day back in February. The last strike before that was 17 years ago.<\/p>\n
Prior to the strike, there had been 35 negotiation sessions, including 15 mediated sessions. \u201cThe city has confidence in the mediation process and is fully committed to it,\u201d read a statement released the Monday before the strike.<\/p>\n
The outside workers\u2019 contract expired at the end of December 2024.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, the union blocked Sherbrooke Street East between Pie-IX and Viau during morning rush hour, disrupting bus service in the area. Workers then marched toward Faubourgs Park at the Jacques Cartier Bridge approach.<\/p>\n
Friday morning, the union held a rally outside city hall, leading to a complete closure of Notre-Dame Street. n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city came through last week\u2019s three-day blue-collar worker\u2019s strike relatively unscathed, save for a disruption during rush…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7807,7802,1840,7806,635,7803,7801,7808,7810,50,7800,7804,3138,6456,7809,7799,7811,7805],"class_list":{"0":"post-14671","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-montreal","8":"tag-advocacy","9":"tag-business-ethics","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-industrial-relations","12":"tag-labor","13":"tag-labor-disputes","14":"tag-labor-relations","15":"tag-labor-related-organizations","16":"tag-labour-movement","17":"tag-montreal","18":"tag-occupational-organizations","19":"tag-organizational-conflict","20":"tag-protests","21":"tag-social-conflict","22":"tag-sociology-of-work","23":"tag-strike-action","24":"tag-strikes","25":"tag-trade-unions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}