STM maintenance workers’ strike day four: both parties in mediation on Monday

The 2,400 maintenance employees are entering the fourth of nine days of strike action by continuing to demand that the STM withdraw its demands for major setbacks in working conditions. 

The first real mediation meeting between the STM and the striking maintenance workers’ union will take place next Monday.

Bus and metro service has been reduced to 50 per cent but is supposed to return to normal for the Canadian Grand Prix weekend.

On Friday, the mediator will meet separately with the management of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) and the maintenance employees’ union to familiarize themselves with the file and each other’s positions, union president Bruno Jeannotte announced Thursday during a press conference.

“The strike is turning people’s daily lives upside down and we are well aware of this,” said ” says Bruno Jeannotte, president of the Syndicat du transport de Montréal-CSN. “If we could have avoided it, we would have done it. We’ve been negotiating for more than a year. For weeks, the STM has known that the best way to avoid a strike is for it to drop its demands for setbacks. If she refuses to move, she must take responsibility for this conflict. We are ready to negotiate to find ways forward, but it doesn’t make sense to open the door wide to subcontracting. Every time we use the private sector in our public services, we see the bill swell and the quality of services decrease. This is not the solution for the future of the STM.”

The nine-day strike by the Federation of Public Service Employees union, affiliated with the CSN, is scheduled to end on June 17. As of day four of the strike, service will be slowed down, without being stopped, until the end of the strike.

Jeannotte is already talking about negotiation meetings in July, which suggests that the parties are still far from an agreement, despite 75 negotiation sessions.

“It seems that the government is only concerned about public transit and those who use it during a strike,” said Caroline Senneville, President of the CSN. “The rest of the time, it underfunds public transit and only thinks about polluting and useless projects like the third link. If the government wants to be part of the solution and help the parties reach an agreement, it must increase funding and let workers exercise their right to strike, especially since the level of essential services has been ratified by the court.”

Outsourcing is the main point of contention at the moment. In these negotiations, maintenance employees are proposing solutions to improve recruitment at the STM, in particular by curbing the use of subcontracting and privatization, improving family-work balance and implementing measures to attract and retain staff.

The STM says it needs to review its work organization to reduce the burden and cost of certain services. The union says it is fighting against the privatization of certain services.

The full schedule can be found at stm.info.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews