An "irresponsible" strike

May 22, 2007

The Syndicat du transport de Montréal (Montreal transport Union), representing maintenance workers of the Société de transport de Montréal (Montreal Transport Society), in Canada, voted "to go on strike at one minute past midnight this May 22", effectively cutting down the bus and metro services to only some hours of the day.

The Société qualified the vote of "irresponsible", as talks are still under way in order to reach a mutual agreement between the workers, who want continued salary raises for the next few years, while the Société offers to freeze salaries for the first year and a lesser raise for the subsequent years. The Syndicat's total requests are in the neighborhood of $60 million (Canadian funds), while the Société "already anticipates a $22 million shortfall" for 2007.

The Government of Québec's Essential Services Council has called for some services to be delivered to Montrealers during the strike. Bus and metro (subway) schedules are thus constricted to rush hours only:


 * Monday to Friday: 06:00-09:00am, 03:30-06:30pm, 11:00pm-01:00am
 * Saturday and Sunday: 06:00-09:00am, 02:00-05:00pm, 11:00pm-01:00am

For low-mobility users, the Société ensures that "[p]aratransit services will be provided in full as usual."

The Société asks its clients to "note that bus drivers, metro operators and fare collectors are not responsible for the current situation", and thus to be "lenient" towards them.

There is no information at the moment as to how long the labour dispute will last.