International Workers’ Day march in Montreal

"A disconnection between what the government does and what the workers want," says Vincent Chevarie, spokesperson for Au bas de l'échelle, as hundreds gathered at François-Perrault Park for International Workers' Day. Johanie Bouffard reports.

By Johanie Bouffard

May 1st marks International Workers’ Day and in Montreal, hundreds of workers from the public and para-public sectors gathered at François-Perrault Park to celebrate labour rights.

“May 1st reunites around 20, maybe 15, 20 organizations, community organizations, a lot of union workers too,” said Vincent Chevarie, a spokesperson with Au bas de l’échelle.

This year’s theme is called “United for our voices to be heard.”

According to the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), the mobilization of workers in the public and para-public sectors in recent months has led to significant advances in defending rights and improving working and employment conditions.

“The issues for workers are still very present, but there’s also many issues for the population of Quebec in terms of environmental crisis, the lack of affordable housing, the inflation, the economical and political issues we have are really important to be addressed for the well-being of the population,” said Ariane Beauchemin Pepin, a spokesperson with APTS.

International Workers’ Day march in Montreal on May 1, 2024. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)
International Workers’ Day march in Montreal on May 1, 2024. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)

Montrealer Philippe Lapointe attended the march with his family and for him, affordability was top of mind. 

“We are here to show everybody that even though we have different tags, we’re all together for the cause of working people and good working conditions, and we’re pretty proud from the gathering we have today,” said Philippe Lapointe, a construction union worker.

“The capacity to pay the bills would be the most important one and of course to be able to have a big balance between the cost of life and our pay, that’s the most important one.”

Despite the FAE teachers’ strike coming to an end earlier this year in Quebec, Rosa Meunier, a special-ed teacher in Montreal, says more can be done to improve working conditions for educators.

“We’ve learned that if we get together and if we ask for the population support, we can make changes and those changes can last for a long while in the last negotiation,” said Meunier.

“I’m happy by what we got, and I’m happy with what elementary school got, and what secondary school got, but we still need to fight for special-education teachers.”

However, the groups say more work needs to be done and it is essential to continue to unite voices to face the challenges that affect all workers and, more broadly, Quebec society.

“There’s a key message that we want to send to the government is they need to listen to us,” said Chevarie.

International Workers’ Day march in Montreal on May 1, 2024. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)
International Workers’ Day march in Montreal on May 1, 2024. (Johanie Bouffard, CityNews)

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