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Protesters gather outside Bombardier HQ over CEO pay scandal

Click to play video: 'Protesters rally outside Bombardier HQ over CEO pay scandal'
Protesters rally outside Bombardier HQ over CEO pay scandal
WATCH ABOVE: Despite a recent government bailout and thousands of job cuts, top executives at Bombardier received significant raises last year. As Global’s Matt Grillo reports, the public has taken notice and many are voicing their discontent – Apr 2, 2017

Unions representing workers at transportation giant Bombardier aren’t satisfied with the company’s attempts to address the flap over pay to its top executives.

A group of concerned citizens also rallied in front of Bombardier’s head office in Montreal Sunday afternoon to denounce the current state of affairs and express their anger over high executive salaries.

“This company still survives because of public money, our money,” Philippe Laguë, a citizen, said. “Apologies are not enough. They should resign. The actual board should resign.”

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The Parti Québécois for its part announced Saturday that it intends to table a motion Tuesday urging the National Assembly to ask Bombardier executives to forgo their pay increases.

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The company has been under fire since it became known last week that compensation to chairman Pierre Beaudoin and five senior executives soared to more than 32-million dollars last year, up from 21-million in 2015.

“I’m embarrassed. I’m embarrassed to admit this is a Quebec company,” Gerrine Doucet, who attended the protest, said.

WATCH: A group of activists protest outside of Bombardier Headquarters in Montreal. 
Click to play video: 'Demonstrators protest outside Bombardier HQ  over CEO bonuses'
Demonstrators protest outside Bombardier HQ over CEO bonuses

READ MORE: Bombardier facing union drive in Montreal

Beaudoin announced late Friday that he has asked the board to scale his pay back to 2015 levels.

The company also put out a statement defending its policies concerning how executives are paid.

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READ MORE: Bombardier exec issues open letter defending pay structure after public uproar

But Renaud Gagne of Unifor says Beaudoin’s announcement doesn’t mean much because executive pay in 2015 was already too high.

David Chartrand of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers says Beaudoin’s move is a step in the right direction, but notes the fat pay packages could be seen as
disrespectful to workers since Bombardier is eliminating over 14,000 jobs around the world by the end of next year.

WATCH BELOW: Bombardier bailout

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