MONTREAL – Close to 100 blue collar workers in the Montreal suburb of Côte Saint-Luc walked off the job on Monday to protest the fact they’ve been without a work contract since December 2012.
The mayor has called the union’s demands unreasonable, but the union argued the city is acting in bad faith.
“We want to sit down and start negotiating,” said Chantal Racette, president of the blue collar workers’ union.
“We’ve submitted our demands, but haven’t heard back from the employer.”
The workers descended on Côte Saint-Luc City Hall and took over the entire front lawn to throw a barbecue.
In a surprise move, the mayor showed up to shake hands and tell workers how much they’re appreciated.
“I’m very proud of our blue collars,” said Côte Saint-Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein.
“I think we have some of the best blue collars on the island of Montreal and we’re very serious about coming to a collective agreement.”
However, the union feels it has hit a wall at the negotiating table.
“We want to negotiate in good faith, but the employer doesn’t seem to be giving the same mandate to their negotiator,” deplored Racette.
The city was hoping to settle a grievance over the outsourcing of garbage collection at the negotiating table, but the union sees it as two separate issues.
“They’re separate, but we certainly want to settle everything at the same time if we can,” said Brownstein.
Also at stake are the union’s salary demands, which the mayor finds unreasonable.
“If they look at what Westmount or other cities have agreed to and come back to us with numbers like that, I think we’ll close this deal very soon,” Brownstein said.
The workers spent much of the day trying to inform the public by handing out 40,000 flyers, a move that seems to be paying off.
“If you want to work legitimately you should have a contract—it’s only fair,” said Côte Saint-Luc resident Sharon Kates.
“I generally don’t agree with strikes, period, but at this point now I don’t see what they have left,” said resident Igor Krichevsky.
“I guess some people are suffering not getting services, but 24 hours is not that much.”
The mayor insists he’s meeting with his team and promises to do everything in his power to get negotiations back on track.
Otherwise, the union vows to escalate pressure by inviting Montreal’s 6,000 blue collar workers to join the protest.
“If we have to unload 6,000 workers here, we will,” Racette said.