STM maintenance workers protest downtown as contract talks drag on
Members of the Société de transport de Montréal maintenance union demonstrated in front of the STM offices in downtown Montreal Thursday afternoon.
The 2,400 workers with the Syndicat des employés d’entretien de la Société de transport de Montréal are in the midst of contract negotiations. In a statement issued in late May, the union alleged the STM “seeks to roll back working conditions at all levels.” Ninetyeight per cent of the union voted in favour of a strike mandate.
The Administrative Labour Tribunal ruled Aug. 18 that the union provides essential services and ordered an end to pressure tactics that included refusing overtime. Last week, the minister responsible for labour, Dominique Vien, mandated mediator Mathieu Lebrun to assist the negotiations.
The STM claimed maintenance employees’ pressure tactics were responsible for there being fewer buses on the road earlier this month. The STM indicated that compared with previous years, it had to cut more than 1,900 hours of bus service for the first three days following Labour Day, compared with 174 hours in 2017 and hours equalling 151 days in 2016 for the same period.
At the heart of the impasse are the issues of overtime and the outsourcing of tasks currently performed internally.
The union criticizes the STM for wanting to “move workers on atypical work schedules and privatize jobs.” The union wants the organization to hire new workers to help overworked employees.
The protests took place at 3 p.m. in front of the STM offices on de la Gauchetière St. near Mansfield St.