Montreal’s blue-collar workers to strike June 16
MONTREAL – If you were looking forward to a summer outing to Montreal’s Biodome or Insectarium over the next few months, you might want to make alternate plans.
The union representing more than 5,500 of the city’s blue-collar workers announced late Friday afternoon that the employees will begin targeted strike action on June 16 that will shut down both popular attractions indefinitely.
The workers, represented by Local 301 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, have been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2007, and union representive Marc Ranger says they simply got tired of waiting.
“We advised (the city) that we would re-evaluate the progress of negotiations at the end of May and decide what we would do,” he said. “Some progress was made, but at the same time, we were looking for a global deal, not just an agreement on a few specific issues.”
The targeted strike will involve two separate componants, explained city of Montreal spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez. The first affects only overtime hours. Each day, one of the city’s 19 boroughs will be subject to a ban on all overtime.
