Two blue collar workers allege racism within two Montreal boroughs

The Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) is representing two blue collar workers who are alleging racism within two City of Montreal boroughs and their union.

The two Black men have filed complaints at the Tribunal administratif du travail (TAT) against their union, the Syndicat the cols bleus regroupes , section local 301.

In the first case, which is set to be before the court on August 28, 2023, Wilson Francois a blue collar worker at the Saint-Leonard borough in the parcs department alleges racism and favoritism blocked opportunities to be hired as a driver for motorised vehicles despite his 20 year experience. He says new hires, who were white and younger, were hired as drivers quicker before him.

“It was constant discrimination I experienced,” said Francois.

Francois also claims that he was subjected to excessive supervision, with rigid timing of his work down to the minute. He also alleges that he was blocked from working the 1080 consecutive hours necessary every year to become eligible for the role.

The man says in April 2023, the union filed a grievance on his behalf, but three weeks later he was informed the grievance would not be accepted, without providing information as to why. In May 2023, Francois filed a complaint against his union for misrepresentation.

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The other complaint filed at the TAT is on behalf of Joslin Jean, a blue collar worker in the public works department of the Verdun borough, who alleges he was also subject to racism on the job. Jean says that when he started work in Verdun, during the pandemic, he and a few other Black workers were not assigned seats during the lunch period, due to social“ distancing, leaving them scrambling for seats or eating standing up.

He also alleges he was wrongfully dismissed in June 2021, and that all the Black employees were fired at the end of their probation periods.

After filing a grievance for wrongful dismissal, he says he found out last June that the union negotiated away the component of racism from his grievance without informing him.

He filed a complaint against the union on June 30, 2023.

“I thought the union was there to help me, that was not the case. The union was there to help the employer,” said Jean.

According to both men the union has not done enough to defend their rights in matters of discrimination, and have trivialized racism by removing the race aspect for their cases.

“The union is seriously at fault,” said Fo Niemi, executive director of CRARR.

CRARR claims another 30 or so complaints have been filed against the union for faulty representation.

“Complaints of racial discrimination and harassment are reduced to complaints of psychological harassment,” says Niemi, “which allows the employer to turn around and say, ‘No, we don’t have any problems of racism here.’”

Both men say not much has changed since racism within the City of Montreal came to the forefront last March following an investigation by Le Devoir. The City of Montreal had then created a new centralized system on how it handles complaints of racism and discrimination by
employees.

In a statement to CityNews Jean-Pierre Lauzon, the president of the Syndicat des Cols bleus regroupés de Montréal said they are aware of the allegations and taking them very seriously.

“As state the Soares and Saba reports, there is systemic racism in the City of Montreal which negatively impacts our members.
As president of the union, we deplore the fact that the City of Montreal has been very slow to act and fix the various forms of discrimination in the municipal apparatus. I can’t get into any specifics since we must respect the privacy and the due process related to the cases. We are waiting to be heard by the Tribunal administratif du travail,” Lauzon said.

In a statement the City of Montreal said: “The City of Montreal is in the process of making significant changes to combat racism and systemic discrimination within its organization. The City was already on the move, but the troubling revelations in the news have prompted us to step up the pace in recent months, in order to put in place better tools and the right mechanisms to support employees who are victims of racism in their quest for justice. Work continues on overhauling the complaints process, and we plan to set up the guichet unique this fall. We can’t say it often enough: racism is a violation of human rights and freedoms. It must be fought on a daily basis, and the City of Montreal is fully mobilized to this end.”