The Administrative Labour Tribunal considers the essential services provided during the overtime strike by unionized maintenance employees of the STM, which is to begin Wednesday night, including holidays, to be sufficient.
The union, which represents the 2,400 maintenance workers, announced an OT strike from Thursday at one minute after midnight to Jan. 11 at 11:59 p.m.
In the decision handed down Wednesday at noon, administrative judge Anick Chainey stated that “nothing allows us to conclude that there is a real danger” to health or public safety with the type of strike planned for a month.
She agrees, however, that there will be “certain, sometimes significant, inconveniences” for users, but that this is the nature of a strike: to disrupt in order to increase pressure on an employer.
Paratransit service will be maintained at all times as it is not affected by this strike.
“Metro service will be provided at 100 per cent capacity at all times of the day throughout the strike thanks to the residual capacity of available vehicles,” explains the STM in a press release.
Bus service will be provided as planned at all times of the day during the strike. “However, as the strike progresses, there will likely be a shortage of available vehicles that have not been repaired,” adds the STM.
“When the union claims that its strike will not affect customers, it is misleading them,” said STM executive director Marie-Claude Léonard. “The combined effect of the holiday season and the refusal to work overtime will have a clear impact on bus service in particular, which will lead to more service disruptions as the strike progresses.”
“If the strike causes a slowdown in services for the public, it will be solely due to the STM’s poor management,” the union replied in a news release following the tribunal’s decision.
“The STM is trying to scare the public and make us believe that our strike is causing a slowdown in services,” said Syndicat du transport de Montréal–CSN president Bruno Jeannotte. “How is it that the STM is unable to provide its normal service without resorting to overtime? It is high time to put an end to these protracted negotiations and give us the means to continue maintaining the STM’s aging infrastructure.”
The STM is set to hold a press conference on Thursday morning to update commuters.
This will be the fourth strike by this union, the Fédération des employé(e) de services publics, affiliated with the CSN. They first walked out in June, a second time in September-October, and a third time in November. That last strike, initially scheduled to last 28 days, was cut short, and union members returned to work on Nov. 12.
“It should be noted that the union ended its previous strike last November in order to respond to the demands of the government and the municipal administration,” the union wrote in its news release. “Since then, neither the government, the STM, nor the municipal administration has made any effort to reach a satisfactory agreement for the 2,400 maintenance workers. The issue of outsourcing remains the most contentious.”
Public transit users should check STM website and apps for real-time information, and consult the web page stm.info/greve.
–With files from La Presse Canadienne
