MONTREAL – The City of Montreal’s blue collar union has defied a labour board ruling by going ahead with an illegal general assembly at the Palais des Congrès on Tuesday morning, while workers were supposed to be on the job.
The move clearly frustrated Montreal’s mayor.
“Go back to work,” said Denis Coderre when asked about the workers.
The City of Montreal requested the labour board’s intervention on Monday on the basis that unauthorised union meetings during work hours are considered illegal.
The blue collars’ collective agreement expires Dec. 2017.
The union boycotted the hearing Monday and instead took to the streets in protest of a new fiscal plan set to take effect next year.
The three year agreement between the provincial government and the municipalities would redefine how collective agreements are negotiated with municipal sector workers.
The labour board ruled in favour of the city.
“They want to give the power to the mayors to be able to impose collective agreements,” said CUPE-Quebec director Marc Ranger at a protest on Monday.
“This is something we’ve never seen in Quebec, even in Canada.”
The blue collar workers’ union isn’t commenting on the illegal union meeting, but they published a letter to all Montrealers titled “A message from your blue collars.”
The union argued that Bill 3, which legislated a new pension plan agreement, opened the door for them to renegotiate and legally protest at any given time.
“First, it was Bill 15 that removed workers’ rights to negotiate their pension plans, and now the Liberal government is once again targeting municipal workers with its fiscal agreement,” stated the letter.
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