Essential services to be maintained during Montreal blue-collar workers’ strike

As municipal blue-collar workers are set to begin their three-day strike Wednesday, City officials said essential services will continue without interruption.

Blue-collar workers have announced their third walkout from 6 a.m. on Wednesday, April 15, to 6 a.m. on Saturday, April 18 demanding better wages.

Authorities said emergency services and other work deemed to be essential for public health and safety will not be affected, including:

• Emergencies (exceptional and urgent situations not covered by the agreement, situations that endanger public health and safety, or emergencies declared by municipal authorities)
• Repair of traffic signs and signals damaged as a result of an accident, among other causes
• Street cleanup following an accident, safety pruning, and tree removal (emergency response regarding public trees)
• Road repairs (major potholes and sinkholes)
• Cleaning of public spaces to ensure safe coexistence
• Operations related to sewers and water mains
• Preventive inspections of municipal arenas
• Operations related to spring flooding in certain boroughs (Pierrefonds-Roxboro, Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Île-Bizard)
• Operations related to drinking water production and wastewater treatment
• Maintenance of living collections (animal, plant and insects)

Household waste collection in the Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, scheduled for Wednesday will proceed as part of essential services, and the collection scheduled for Thursday will be postponed to Saturday, according to the administration.

The City will suspend parking restrictions related to street maintenance operations on all three days of the strike. Other parking regulations remain in effect, including those regarding metered parking, on-street parking zones reserved for residents, limited-time zones, as well as reserved lanes, spaces reserved for people with reduced mobility, and secured zones (e.g., fire hydrants).

The administration also said that there maybe changes to services during the strike period.

Montrealers are asked to consult the City’s website or call 311 before heading to municipal facilities to ensure they are offered.

The three-day strike is the third walkout that 5,500 blue-collar workers belonging to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated with the FTQ. Workers staged a one-day walkout in February.

The union and the City have been in negotiations since February 2025. The previous collective agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2024.