More than a month after the appointment of a mediator, negotiations between the Montreal transport company (STM) and its maintenance employees are still in a dead end, to the point where the risk of a new strike becomes more and more real at the start of the school year.
“So far, we have had nine games with management. And I would qualify them all as non -productive, “said the president of the Montreal transport union, Bruno Jeannotte, in an interview.
On the sidelines of a press conference Thursday, he deplored that the transport company has further refused to prioritize its requests. “This is something that the mediator asked us from the start. We did it, but they still not, and it slows down the process a lot, ”judges the union leader.
Last month, the strike of some 2,400 maintenance employees lasted nine days until June 17, affecting the trips of thousands of metro and buses.
However, as nothing moves to the negotiating table, everything indicates that this could now happen again. “Our goal is never a strike, but it is clear that if we see that our pressure means are not effective, it will take more muscular actions. It is a safe bet that in August we send opinions of strike to the court, ”says Jeannotte.
Photo François Roy, Archives La Presse
Bruno Jeannotte, president of the Montreal Transport Syndicate
General rule, a notice of strike must be sent seven days before a ranging, but this may vary. “If we do it, we are more in order to make strikes in September,” says the president of the union, who calls on the carrier to “change attitude” in order to avoid other disturbances of the service.
Still time, but …
At the STM, the spokesperson Amélie Régis judges rather than “negotiations have been on the right direction since the mediator’s involvement”.
“The presence of the mediator made it possible to discuss subjects which were pending, to establish a clear work sequence with specific deadlines and to set up a sustained rate. We fully meet the agreed deadlines and continue our work in a reasoned and constructive manner, ”she argues.
His group said he was in passing “surprised at the union’s exit since the mediator clearly stated, from the first session, the importance of the confidentiality of the process”.
Since the end of the strike and the appointment of the mediator, the pace of the meetings has been about two to three days a week. Three days of meetings are also scheduled for this week and three others next week.
A “summer break” is however scheduled at the end of July, for a period of three weeks, the STM and the union having agreed not to meet during the mediator’s holidays.
Among the remaining main disputes between the union party and the management, let us mention the will of the STM to create atypical, evening, night and weekend schedules, but also the possibility of moving employees from one installation to another, as well as the use of subcontracting and privatization. The question of wages has not yet been addressed.
The spectrum of other strikes already hovers at the STM. In recent weeks, bus drivers and STM metro operators have also voted for pressure means that can go as far as the unlimited general strike. Likewise for administrative staff members, a first in 40 years.
