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The strike by the 2,400 maintenance workers had limited bus and subway service in Montreal to peak hours and late evenings.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
The head of a union representing transit maintenance workers said members aren’t giving up on their fight for better wages and conditions, despite new legislation that will give the Quebec government greater power to end strikes.
Montreal’s public transit network was gradually returning to normal on Wednesday after the union decided to suspend its strike about two weeks early.
The move came ahead of Labour Minister Jean Boulet tabling legislation that would fast-track the application of a law to give the provincial government greater power to intervene in labour disputes. The law was originally supposed to take effect on Nov. 30.
“We’ve lost an important lever” with the legislation, union president Bruno Jeannotte said Wednesday. But the workers “aren’t at our last pressure tactic,” he said, adding “it’s not because we’ve withdrawn this strike that we’re giving up – on the contrary.”
Montreal transit strike could put Quebec’s new labour law to the test
The law, adopted in the spring, gives the labour minister the power to end a dispute by imposing binding arbitration when a strike or lockout is deemed harmful to the public. It also expands the kinds of services that must be maintained during a labour dispute to include those that ensure “the well-being of the population.”
The strike by the 2,400 maintenance workers had limited bus and subway service in Montreal to peak hours and late evenings. It was originally scheduled to end Nov. 28, but Jeannotte said Wednesday that the speedy application of the new law would have made further strikes impossible and made it harder to negotiate a deal.
Boulet said Wednesday that there was still a need to bring in the law early, despite one strike being suspended. He noted that the union representing 4,500 bus drivers and subway operators has planned a two-day strike this weekend, following a one-day strike on Nov. 1 that halted all service.
However, Boulet says the information he’s received “points to a strong reasonableness that there will be an agreement in principle” negotiated at the table.
Boulet will need the support of Quebec’s three main opposition parties to fast-track the bill through the provincial legislature. The Liberals and the Parti Québécois have signalled their willingness to collaborate with the government, but Québéc solidaire is opposed.
